Polonius' Advice

Polonius gives Laertes a great deal of advice about how to behave with integrity and practicality. He cautions Laertes to keep his thoughts to himself, restrain himself from acting on rash desires, and treat people with familiarity but not with vulgarity. He advises him to hold on to his old friends but be slow to embrace new friends. To be slow to argue but to fight boldly if need be. To listen more than he talks and to dress richly but not gaudily. To refrain from borrowing or lending money and, finally, to be true to himself above all things.

These are really basic threads of advice, I think everyone is given that advice at some point in their life, whether it be from parents, friends, family, or even the media. It could even come from one's own morals and personality. They may have had different meaning back in that time, but most of them are still applicable in todays life situations.

I involve at least some of those in every day of my life, as most people should. Being true to yourself really should be an everyday activity to people. I am also very loyal to my friends, but often times slow to embrace new ones. That is the same reason when I came to this school in November, I got my set group of friends, and have been very hesitant of making any new ones. The only piece of the advice Polonius gave Laertes that isn't really applicable is to dress rich, but not gaudy. Not many people dress rich, unless they are in a high position in business or some other career that would entail a nice dress code. If you were to translate that advice to suit today it would probably be worded differently for guys and girls. For guys it would be "Dress with fashion, but don't dress vulgarly" and for girls "Dress pretty, but not revealing". All these pieces of advice are good, but it is up to the person if they want to follow them.