Quote Analysis

Hamlet warns Polonius not to let Ophelia walk in the sun, using the word 'conception' to mean both understanding and pregnancy.

The pun on 'conception' lets Hamlet say two things at once: that Ophelia might become pregnant ('conceive') and that she might gain dangerous knowledge. Both meanings cast the 'sun'—possibly a pun on 'son,' meaning Hamlet himself—as a corrupting force.

Use this to argue that Hamlet sees himself as a source of contamination—even his warnings to protect Ophelia frame him as the danger, showing how his sense of Denmark's corruption has infected his self-image.