Which word is in italics?
Answer:
Polonius reads the love letter aloud to Gertrude and Claudius for two reasons:
He wants to show that he is a loyal subject, and that he's not trying to get his daughter together with Hamlet—Hamlet, being a royal, won't get much advantage from marrying the daughter of a mere noble. If he reveals the message to them directly, they'll know he is "a man faithful and honorable," as Claudius says.
He wants to get credit for being the one to know why Hamlet is mad. Once he reads the letter, he uses it to explain how Hamlet became mad: "he, repelled...Fell into a sadness, then into a fast...and, by declension / Into the madness wherein now he raves." Claudius was very eager to find out why Hamlet was mad, so being able to give an explanation makes Polonius look good.
His plans after reading the letter are to show the king directly that love is the cause of Hamlet's madness by taking the king to observe a conversation between Ophelia and Hamlet. As it turns out, Hamlet is very mean to Ophelia during this conversation, and the King concludes that he is not in love: "Love? His affections do not that way tend." So Polonius's plan doesn't really succeed.
The story is about the Pyncheon Family and the curse they were under.
Explanation:
- The opening sentences of this novel are worth noting for their many details. Given Hawthorne's habit of using only significant details, certain images should be noted here. The novel involves the story of a house that was built by pride and possessed by death on the very day of the housewarming. Thus, the opening description stresses the darkness of the house.
- As the house and its inhabitants have decayed, the elm tree has grown almost as though it were nourished by the decay of the Pyncheon family. The once proud prosperity of the Pyncheons has given way to poverty for most of the family.
- The elm has grown with each season, but the inhabitants of the house have become stunted. The combination of the light-dark imagery and the growth and non-growth imagery is still seen long after the Colonel's death, when his successor tries to rehabilitate the family.
