Your noble son is mad.
Act II, Scene 2 · Polonius
Quote Type: DialogueDifficulty: ★★☆Quotability: ★★★☆☆
Context
Polonius bluntly announces to Claudius and Gertrude his diagnosis of Hamlet's condition after a long preamble about brevity.
Analysis
The starkness of this declaration—just four words after all his build-up—reads almost like a punchline. Polonius treats madness as a simple category, something he can name and solve, which reveals his tendency to reduce complexity to tidy labels.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that the play questions who gets to define madness—Polonius's confidence here sets up a contrast with Hamlet's own self-aware performance, suggesting that madness is a label imposed by those in power.