Critical Interpretations

Question 1

TS Eliot - The Play

Answer 1

“The Mona Lisa of literature.”

Question 2

Kermode - The Play

Answer 2

“It is a play obsessed with doubles.”

Question 3

Voltaire - The Play

Answer 3

“A vulgar and barbarous tragedy.”

Question 4

Kermode - The Play

Answer 4

“It is not only Hamlet but his play that delays.”

Question 5

Richard Wilson - The Play

Answer 5

“Although the last two and a half acts are not “devoid of incident”, Hamlet’s delay is their predominant interest.”

Question 6

Linda Charnes - Characterisation

Answer 6

“No-one in this play knows or understands anyone else.”

Question 7

Coleridge - Hamlet

Answer 7

“In Hamlet Shakespeare seems to have wished to exemplify […] an equilibrium between the real and imaginary worlds” and it is in “this balance” that Hamlet “is disturbed.”

Question 8

Bloom - Hamlet

Answer 8

“The hero-villain.”

Question 9

Dr Johnson on Hamlet not killing Claudius when he could have

Answer 9

“Too horrible to be read or uttered.”

Question 10

Schuking - Hamlet

Answer 10

“Hamlet cannot be comprehended except as a study of emotion.”

Question 11

LC Knights - Hamlet

Answer 11

“Sterile concentration on death and evil.”

Question 12

Goethe - Hamlet

Answer 12

“Pure, noble and most moral nature.”

Question 13

Jan Kott - Hamlet

Answer 13

“A young rebel who has something of the charm of James Dean.”

Question 14

Oliver film - Hamlet

Answer 14

“The man who couldn’t make up his mind.”

Question 15

Bloom - Hamlet

Answer 15

” By Act 5 he has ‘aged a decade.’ “

Question 16

Coleridge - Hamlet

Answer 16

“Psychological study of a man who could not bring about a balance between his inward thoughts and the external world.”

Question 17

CS Lewis - Hamlet

Answer 17

“Not an individual but everyman.”

Question 18

Coleridge - Hamlet

Answer 18

“Full of meditative excess.”

Question 19

AC Bradley - Hamlet

Answer 19

“Tragedy of reflection.”

Question 20

Erlich - Hamlet

Answer 20

“Hamlet wishes his father strong enough to punish Claudius”, refers to “God, the universal father figure.”

Question 21

Coleridge - Hamlet

Answer 21

“Hamlet is brave and careless of death; but he vacillates from sensibility, and procrastinates from thought, and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve.”

Question 22

Kinnear - Hamlet

Answer 22

“Hamlet is simply the man that was put in an impossible situation.”

Question 23

Richard D Altick - Claudius

Answer 23

“The cunning and lecherousness of Claudius’ evil has corrupted the whole kingdom of Denmark.”

Question 24

Carla Stockton - Claudius

Answer 24

“Clearly the antagonist.”

Question 25

LC Knights - Claudius

Answer 25

“A slimy beast with unctuous verse rhythms.”

Question 26

G Wilson Knight - Claudius

Answer 26

“Good and gentle king.”

Question 27

Michael Pennington - Polonius

Answer 27

“A bad parent.”

Question 28

Michael Pennington - Polonius

Answer 28

“Made palatable by the fact that he is funny.”

Question 29

A C Bradley - Gertrude

Answer 29

“The queen was not a bad-hearted woman.”

Question 30

Nardo - Hamlet

Answer 30

“Hamlet’s feigned madness is how he escapes true madness.”

Question 31

Wilson Knight - Claudius

Answer 31

“Claudius shows every sign of being an excellent diplomatist and King.”

Question 32

Kirsch - Hamlet

Answer 32

“Hamlet’s grief is intensified by the functional loss of his mother and the inability to mourn his father.”

Question 33

Neely - Ophelia

Answer 33

“Ophelia’s madness differs from Hamlet’s because of gender differences.”

Question 34

Paster - Hamlet

Answer 34

“Hamlet swings between melancholic lethargy and ineffectual rage.”

Question 35

Showalter - Ophelia

Answer 35

“A powerful figure who rebels against the family and social order.”

Question 36

TS Elliot - Hamlet

Answer 36

“Hamlet is dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible.”

Question 37

Knight - Hamlet

Answer 37

“Hamlet is inhuman.”

Question 38

Knight - Hamlet

Answer 38

“Hamlet is feared by those around him.”

Question 39

Knight - Hamlet

Answer 39

“They are always trying to find what is wrong with him.”

Question 40

A C Bradley - Hamlet

Answer 40

“In Hamlet though we have a villain, he is a small one.”

Question 41

Greenbalt - Hamlet

Answer 41

“The play should be over by the end of the first act.” - Hamlet doesn’t act. He simply just procrastinates throughout the whole play and could have avenged much quicker than he ever does.

Question 42

Sagar - The Mousetrap

Answer 42

“The mousetrap proves nothing.”