CRITICAL ANALYSIS In Act II Sc.1 Polonius talks to a man named Reynaldo and sends him to spy on his son. Ophelia reports to her father Polonius the strange behaviour of Hamlet. Polonius immediately concludes that Hamlet is 'madly in love' with Ophelia: “That hath made him mad." He wants to report it to the king immediately, because Ophelia says he just stood there staring at her for five minutes covered in mud and looked insane. Polonius at first thinks that Hamlets love for Ophelia is a fake act, but soon finds that his love is actual true. But he then believes he has gone mad, he believes he has gone crazy. This creates dramatic irony, Polonius cannot tell the truth, he is misreading Hamlet and it leads to his death. We the readers know that he is wrong about Hamlet. This scene creates a beginning of Polonius end. He’s actions lead to his eventual downfall. This scene shows that Polonius is not trustworthy because of him spying on his son, it shows the deception that Hamlet has and that Ophelia really does care for Hamlet. The main theme that it develops is acting, because both Polonius towards his son and Hamlet towards Ophelia trick them with false words and emotion. In this scene we learn that Polonius makes false judgements, and Hamlet can be very deceptive with his actions and emotions. We learn that the theme of acting is very present in the play. Through this acting many characters in the play don’t not know what the true intentions of other characters are. This creates a feel of mystery and tension as we do not know what the characters actions will be and how they will face there challenges. Summary: Act I, Scene v." SparkNotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 July 2014.