critics

Question 1

what does samuel johnson say about hamlet being an insrument of fate

Answer 1

hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent

Question 2

what does wilson knight say about hamlet being evil

Answer 2

hamlet is an element of evil in the state of denmark

Question 3

what does rebecca smith say about polonius loving his children and the kingdom

Answer 3

polonius seems to love his children he seems to have the welfare of the kingdom in mind

Question 4

what does showalter say about ophelia being flat

Answer 4

ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality and language

Question 5

what does jonathon dollimore say about corruption in the play reflecting the real world

Answer 5

articulates a crisis in the decay of a traditional social order in england

Question 6

what does dawson say about claudius’ love for gertrude

Answer 6

he loved gertrude deeply and genuinely

Question 7

what diana bornstein say about women and slaves

Answer 7

women are often given the same advice that is given to servents…chastity, piety and obedience

Question 8

what does one critic say about the atmosphere in the court

Answer 8

claustrophobic

Question 9

what does one critic say about hamlets beliefs

Answer 9

no firm beliefs in either himself or anything else

Question 10

what is said about the second scenes negative tone despite the king and queens efforts

Answer 10

a shadow lingers over the second scene despite the efforts of the new monarch claudius and the queen gertrude to erase it

Question 11

what is said about hamlets respoibikuyu

Answer 11

personal and political responsibility

Question 12

what is said about appearance vs reality

Answer 12

radical fracture between appearance and reality

Question 13

What does Kate baty say about revenge tragedies and conventions that would be expected

Answer 13

It was written at the height of the genres, popularity and features. Many of the conventions of the contemporary audience would expect.

Question 14

What does baty say about revenge as a philosophical debate

Answer 14

Revenge is less of a spectacle for audience consumption and more of a philosophical debate: is revenge a justified and fitting resolution

Question 15

What does baty say about applying our own morals onto an old play

Answer 15

It is too easy to retrospectively apply our own morals and sensibilities to a play that was written over 400 years ago and for a very different audience

Question 16

What does baty say about claudius being able to be empathised with

Answer 16

By granting Claudius his own soliloquy shakespeare allows the audience to empathise with the figure who recognises his ‘offence is rank’

Question 17

What does baty say the humanising of Claudius does

Answer 17

The humanising of Claudius as more than a simple villain again makes the plays resolution a little less comfortable

Question 18

What does baty say about four deeply flawed avengers

Answer 18

Shakespeare gives the audience four different models of avenger all of whom could in their own way be seen as deeply flawed

Question 19

What does baty say about hamlet being less than enthusiastic about his revenge

Answer 19

The task of avenging his fathers murder , he is portrayed as less than enthusiastic about the prospect

Question 20

What does baty say about the killing of polonium being a farcical accident

Answer 20

The killing of polonium which can be interpreted as the point of no return that seals hamlets fate is a farcical accident rather than an heroic act of revenge

Question 21

What does baty say about hamlets instability

Answer 21

Hamlets instability calls into question the idea that a noble act of revenge by him is possible

Question 22

What does baty say about revenge and corruption

Answer 22

Revenge has the power to corrups

Question 23

What does baty say about laertes being a tool for Claudius

Answer 23

He is little more than a tool used to achieve Claudius’ own ends

Question 24

What does baty say an audience viewing hamlet when it was first preformed may have felt

Answer 24

An audience viewing hamlet when it was first performed may have felt that there had been a purging of negative emotions and that Oder had been restored

Question 25

What does baty say a modern audience would think of fortinbras

Answer 25

A problematic figure prone to action over thought

Question 26

What does baty say about the command of bearing hamlet like a soldier being wrong to a modern audience

Answer 26

The command to bear hamlet like a soldier to a military style funeral chimes discordantlt especially to a modern audience who have seen hamlet as a thinker, a philosopher in the renaissance humanist vein rather than a fighter

Question 27

What does baty say about revenge and moral questions

Answer 27

Revenge is complicated by moral questions

Question 28

What does baty say about the ending being the only possible ending

Answer 28

Revenge while far from being a perfect solution is also the only possible ending for hamlet from the point of view of plot and drama

Question 29

What does baty say about the inevitability of the final scene

Answer 29

The final scene is tragic in it’s inevitability

Question 30

What is said about hamlet and mental illness

Answer 30

Hamlet is shakespeares most fully developed study of mental illness

Question 31

what does a.c bradley say about what the tradgedy of the play is

Answer 31

tragedy of thouhgt

Question 32

what does elaine showalter say about madness being a product of feminity

Answer 32

‘madness is a product of the female body and female nature’

Question 33

what does t.s elliot say about the play being about a mothers guilt

Answer 33

It is a play ‘dealing with the effects of a mother’s guilt upon her son’

Question 34

what does jonothan dillimore say about the avenger as an agent and victum

Answer 34

Sees character of avenger as an ‘agent and victim of social corruption