One of the themes of Shakespeare's Hamlet corresponds with ideas expressed by Krishnamurti and Vincent Ryan Ruggiero regarding becoming an individual and at the same time finding accord with one's society. In Hamlet, Shakespeare may indicate a positive truth through the revelation of negatives such as in his depiction of Polonius. Polonius is indeed a pompous man whose aphorisms repeat endlessly a view of personal integrity that is at odds with the Christian conception and that indeed belittles the individual-centered conception of integrity by comparison. Roland Mushat Frye notes that two basic kinds of integrity are both found in Shakespeare's characters, but the first--the integrity of the natural man within the natural order--is seen as a pagan conception most naturally expressed in the Roman plays. Brutus refers to his personal integrity when he states: There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats;
For I am arm'd so strong in honesty,
That they pass me by as the idle wind,
Which I respect not (IV.iii.66-69).
Polonius is a character from the eleventh century who represents a form of the pagan vie
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