Was ';To thine own self be true'; supposed to be said as bad advice in Hamlet?

I mean, the character who said it was supposed to be sort of an idiot, right?Was ';To thine own self be true'; supposed to be said as bad advice in Hamlet?
A lot of people miss the point of that passage, and the comical part at the end of it. Polonius, was, in fact, ';sort of an idiot'; ... not quite that, but a foolish old geezer.





The point of that passage, what it's all about (besides being to entertain), was to show Polonius's character as being a partly sympathetic but also a partly comical figure, one who sometimes comes out with some good sense but at other times is downright silly.





In giving advice to his son, Polonius starts out with a lot of good advice, like telling him to be economical, to choose good %26amp; worthy people as his friends, to dress as nicely he can afford but not overdo it, and other such good, common-sense advice. But then at the end he gets silly: ';To thine own self be true'; is OK advice as far as it goes, but then he prattles on, saying, ';and then it will follow, as the night the day, that thou canst not be false to any man.';





Now the thing about that, it's ridiculous. It's an absurdity. It doesn't follow at all that a person who's true to himself can't be false to anyone else. Just think about it: there are lots of con men who are perfectly true to themselves, but that doesn't mean they can't be false to any other man. A con man can be perfectly true to himself and yet false to everybody he's conning. It doesn't ';follow, as the night the day.'; Why would it? No reason. Ridiculous.





But it's surprising how many people think old Polonius said something double-deep and extra-wise there. I guess the reason is, they notice how he began so well, giving his son good common-sense advice, %26amp; then I guess they must sort of mentally doze off %26amp; assume everything else he says must be wise, too.





But that last advice of his is so silly, it ought to be obvious that Shakespeare wrote that part for comic effect.Was ';To thine own self be true'; supposed to be said as bad advice in Hamlet?
If one is of good character and stays true to it, then he won't cheat another. Another way of saying it: ';You can't cheat an honest man'; Silly? I don't think so.

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No. Hamlet, a teenager, like most teenagers might, finds this older man tedious. True, he's a bit of a blowhard, and is pleased with his own position as the king's adviser, he's probably vain and perhaps a little foolish, but he's not an idiot as is evidenced by the very speech you cite. It is probably the most quoted speech in the play with the possible exception of Hamlet's soliloquy
This is part of Polonius' advice to Laertes and it is good advice. Too many people forget the part that starts ';Neither a borrower nor a lender be...';