CHARACTER QUOTES: Hamlet

Question 1

All duties . . .

Answer 1

All duties seem holy to Hamlet.

• Goethe

Question 2

Hamlet is . . .

Answer 2

Hamlet is “the most amiable of misanthropes.”

• William Hazlitt

Question 3

Hamlet is obliged . . .

Answer 3

Hamlet is obliged to act on the spur of the moment.

• Coleridge (on Hamlet killing Claudius and Polonius)

Question 4

Hamlet is haunted . . .

Answer 4

Hamlet is haunted, not by a physical fear of dying, but of being dead.

• C.S Lewis (Hamlet’s dear of death)

Question 5

Unworthy of a . . .

Answer 5

Unworthy of a hero.

• Thomas Hamner (Hamlet’s actions in Act 3, Scene 3)

Question 6

The violence towards the . . .

Answer 6

The violence towards the mother is the effect of the desire for her.

• Jacqueline Rose (Hamlet’s violence towards his mother in Act 3, Scene 4)

Question 7

A poetic . . .

Answer 7

A poetic and morally sensitive soul crushed by the barbarous task of murder.

• Goethe in 1795 (Hamlet as a tragic hero)

Question 8

Hamlet’s far fetched . . .

Answer 8

Hamlet’s far fetched scruples are often mere pretexts to cover his want of determination.

• Schlegel (Hamlet’s indecision and masculinity)

Question 9

Hamlet is rather . . .

Answer 9

Hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent.

• Samuel Johnson in 1765 (Hamlet’s inactivity)

Question 10

Hamlet “has . . .

Answer 10

Hamlet “has no firm belief in himself or anything”

• Coleridge in early 1800 (Hamlet’s beliefs)

Question 11

Hamlet is a man . . .

Answer 11

Hamlet is a man incapable of acting because he thinks too much.

• Coleridge in early 1800 (Hamlet’s thinking and actions)

Question 12

Hamlet is a merge of . . .

Answer 12

Hamlet is a merge of the tragic hero and the clown figure.

• Gabriel Josipovici (Hamlet’s character)

Question 13

“Hamlet’s suffering and . . .

Answer 13

“Hamlet’s suffering and behaviour stem from the fact that he cannot find a play to be part of.”

• Gabriel Josipovici (Hamlet’s dilemma)

Question 14

(Hamlet is) an . . .

Answer 14

(Hamlet is) an element of evil in the state of Denmark,

• Wilson Knight in 1930 (Hamlet)

Question 15

The world of Hamlet is . . .

Answer 15

The world of Hamlet is a remarkably enclosed one.

• Alan Gardnier (Hamlet’s World)

Question 16

“[Hamlet] is not safe . . .

Answer 16

“[Hamlet] is not safe, primarily because he is right.”

• Wilson Knight

Question 17

“The contemplative . . .

Answer 17

“The contemplative, sensitive, even feminine Prince is given an entirely masculine, martial, noisy funeral.”

• Patrick

Question 18

“[Hamlet] is no . . .

Answer 18

“[Hamlet] is no soldier, no politician, no King.”

• Patrick

Question 19

“A ruler should perform . . .

Answer 19

“A ruler should perform any action that preserves and strengthens his power, regardless of its morality.”

• Realpolitik

Question 20

“Hamlet’s disgust at the . . .

Answer 20

“Hamlet’s disgust at the feminine passivity in himself is translated into violent repulsion against women.”

• Leverenz

Question 21

“Hamlet’s situation is . . .

Answer 21

“Hamlet’s situation is ambigous, since he pursues not only a personal vendetta . . . which Elizabethan commentators condemned but also official justice - which they tended to approve.”

• Watson

Question 22

“Persistently cruel to . . .

Answer 22

“Persistently cruel to Ophelia.”

• Edwards

Question 23

The hero is not a . . .

Answer 23

The hero is not a helpless victim of fate but is brought down by his “tragic flaw”.

• A.C Bradley

Question 24

“To thine . . .

Answer 24

“To thine own self be true, says Polonius to Laertes. Hamlet exemplifies this”.

• Rowland Malony

Question 25

Hamlet’s “Oedipal fixation on . . .

Answer 25

Hamlet’s “Oedipal fixation on Gertrude” is “contaminating”.

• David Thatcher

Question 26

“Hamlet is no pagan avenger of . . .

Answer 26

“Hamlet is no pagan avenger of Icelandic saga, but a Christian Elizabethan who adopted the current confused beliefs of his age about ghosts”.

• Campbell and Quinn (1966)

Question 27

Hamlet’s tragedy is . . .

Answer 27

Hamlet’s tragedy is that he ends by accepting the standards of behaviour his better nature rejects.

• Alan Gardiner

Question 28

It seems as in plays of this . . .

Answer 28

It seems as in plays of this kind it was a necessary part of the total effect that the villain should be to come extent the agent of his own destruction.

• Helen Gardner 1959; The Historicist Approach to Hamlet.

Question 29

Hamlet is mad because . . .

Answer 29

Hamlet is mad because politics is itself madness when it destroys all feeling and affection.

• Jan Knott

Question 30

It is not difficult to see why . . .

Answer 30

It is not difficult to see why Hamlet values the theatre and the players. As a rebel and idealist, he himself constantly adopts roles in relation to the world he inhabits, generally to disconcert the orthodox; Gertrude, Claudius, Polonius, Ophelia (and later Osric and Laertes) all have to face performances from him that designed to baffle and humiliate.

• Stephen Siddall

Question 31

He uses more puns than . . .

Answer 31

He uses more puns than any other Shakespearean figure.

• Kate Flint

Question 32

Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause . . .

Answer 32

Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause . . . He treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems to be useless and wanton cruelty. (Act 3, Scene 1)

• Samuel Johnson

Question 33

When sexual repression is highly pronounced . . .

Answer 33

When sexual repression is highly pronounced, as with Hamlet, then both types of women are felt to be hostile: The pure one out of resentment at her impulses, these sensual one out of the temptation she offers to plunge into guiltiness. Misogyny . . . is the inevitable result.

Question 34

In reality his uncle incorporates the . . .

Answer 34

In reality his uncle incorporates the deepest and most buried part of his own personality, so that he cannot ill him without also killing himself.

• Ernest Jones 1949

Question 35

A level students were asked to consider that . . .

Answer 35

A level students were asked to consider that ‘Hamlet should have been an actor, not a prince’ as though these are two mutually exclusive roles’
‘a good king must be a good actor’

• Jonny Patrick

Question 36

In killing Claudius he would be killing himself . . .

Answer 36

In killing Claudius he would be killing himself, since he too unconsciously wished to kill the king.

• Raman Selden

Question 37

Schlegel saw Hamlet’s faith as superficial and inconstant ‘his far fetched scruples are often mere pretexts to cover his want of determination . . .

Answer 37

Schlegel saw Hamlet’s faith as superficial and inconstant ‘his far fetched scruples are often mere pretexts to cover his want of determination . . . he believes in the ghost of his father when he sees it, and as soon as it has disappeared, it appears to him in light of a deception.