ks instructively and authoritatively. Polonius tries to show off his wisdom and uses inflated language in both of these passages, he still has different masks on, depending in the person he is speaking to. Even though Polonius is a comical character, he has a functional relation to the main themes of the play and helps us gain insight on other characters. The stupidity of his advisor stresses one more time that Claudius is not as able a king as King Hamlet was before him. "Madam, I swear I use no art at all," (II. ii 104) says Polonius, and the readers laugh to the absurdity of this statement. This unfortunately is very characteristic of his personality - to use "art" and to act as a "lawful espial" (III. i. 35). The artificiality of Polonius suggests the kind of world in which Hamlet and the other characters are now living - full of deceit, pretense and masks....
