CHARACTER QUOTES: Hamlet Flashcards
All duties . . .
All duties seem holy to Hamlet.
- Goethe
Hamlet is . . .
Hamlet is “the most amiable of misanthropes.”
- William Hazlitt
Hamlet is obliged . . .
Hamlet is obliged to act on the spur of the moment.
- Coleridge (on Hamlet killing Claudius and Polonius)
Hamlet is haunted . . .
Hamlet is haunted, not by a physical fear of dying, but of being dead.
- C.S Lewis (Hamlet’s dear of death)
Unworthy of a . . .
Unworthy of a hero.
- Thomas Hamner (Hamlet’s actions in Act 3, Scene 3)
The violence towards the . . .
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)
A poetic . . .
A poetic and morally sensitive soul crushed by the barbarous task of murder.
- Goethe in 1795 (Hamlet as a tragic hero)
Hamlet’s far fetched . . .
Hamlet’s far fetched scruples are often mere pretexts to cover his want of determination.
- Schlegel (Hamlet’s indecision and masculinity)
Hamlet is rather . . .
Hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent.
- Samuel Johnson in 1765 (Hamlet’s inactivity)
Hamlet “has . . .
Hamlet “has no firm belief in himself or anything”
- Coleridge in early 1800 (Hamlet’s beliefs)
Hamlet is a man . . .
Hamlet is a man incapable of acting because he thinks too much.
- Coleridge in early 1800 (Hamlet’s thinking and actions)
Hamlet is a merge of . . .
Hamlet is a merge of the tragic hero and the clown figure.
- Gabriel Josipovici (Hamlet’s character)
“Hamlet’s suffering and . . .
“Hamlet’s suffering and behaviour stem from the fact that he cannot find a play to be part of.”
- Gabriel Josipovici (Hamlet’s dilemma)
(Hamlet is) an . . .
(Hamlet is) an element of evil in the state of Denmark,
- Wilson Knight in 1930 (Hamlet)
The world of Hamlet is . . .
The world of Hamlet is a remarkably enclosed one.
- Alan Gardnier (Hamlet’s World)
“[Hamlet] is not safe . . .
“[Hamlet] is not safe, primarily because he is right.”
- Wilson Knight
“The contemplative . . .
“The contemplative, sensitive, even feminine Prince is given an entirely masculine, martial, noisy funeral.”
- Patrick
“[Hamlet] is no . . .
“[Hamlet] is no soldier, no politician, no King.”
- Patrick
“A ruler should perform . . .
“A ruler should perform any action that preserves and strengthens his power, regardless of its morality.”
- Realpolitik
“Hamlet’s disgust at the . . .
“Hamlet’s disgust at the feminine passivity in himself is translated into violent repulsion against women.”
- Leverenz
“Hamlet’s situation is . . .
“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
“Persistently cruel to . . .
“Persistently cruel to Ophelia.”
- Edwards
The hero is not a . . .
The hero is not a helpless victim of fate but is brought down by his “tragic flaw”.
- A.C Bradley
“To thine . . .
“To thine own self be true, says Polonius to Laertes. Hamlet exemplifies this”.
- Rowland Malony
Hamlet’s “Oedipal fixation on . . .
Hamlet’s “Oedipal fixation on Gertrude” is “contaminating”.
- David Thatcher
“Hamlet is no pagan avenger of . . .
“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)
Hamlet’s tragedy is . . .
Hamlet’s tragedy is that he ends by accepting the standards of behaviour his better nature rejects.
- Alan Gardiner
It seems as in plays of this . . .
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.
Hamlet is mad because . . .
Hamlet is mad because politics is itself madness when it destroys all feeling and affection.
- Jan Knott
It is not difficult to see why . . .
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
He uses more puns than . . .
He uses more puns than any other Shakespearean figure.
- Kate Flint
Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause . . .
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
When sexual repression is highly pronounced . . .
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.
In reality his uncle incorporates the . . .
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
A level students were asked to consider that . . .
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
In killing Claudius he would be killing himself . . .
In killing Claudius he would be killing himself, since he too unconsciously wished to kill the king.
- Raman Selden
Schlegel saw Hamlet’s faith as superficial and inconstant ‘his far fetched scruples are often mere pretexts to cover his want of determination . . .
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.
