Critics + Quotes

Question 1

“The opening scene of Hamlet is as well constructed as that of any play ever written” - T. S. Eliot
SUPPORT

Answer 1

“Who’s there?” - first words craft a dramatic atmosphere and foreshadow ambiguity
“strange eruption” - foreboding for corruption later in the play
“guilty thing upon a fearful summons” - establishes ambiguity
SETS THEMES THAT CARRY THROUGHOUT

Question 2

“The aim of tragedy is to arouse sensations of PITY and fear” - Aristotle

Answer 2

Link to Hamlet’s death/mistreatment
“self-slaughter” - alone in his grief
“pigeon liver’d and lack gall” - unable to complete his duty
‘Too too sullied flesh would melt’

Question 3

“The aim of tragedy is to arouse sensations of pity and FEAR” - Aristotle

Answer 3

“it bodes some strange eruption to our state” - death impending in Denmark
“it harrows me with fear and wonder” - Reaction to the supernatural - untrustworthy

Question 4

“Claudius shows every sign of being an excellent diplomat and King” - Knight
SUPPORT

Answer 4

“our hearts in grief” - unites the royal court - include asking Polonius
“so much for him” (Branagh 1996, rips the letter) - not threatened, impose stability
“auspicious and a dropping eye” - balanced
iambic pentameter - reasoned

Question 5

“Claudius shows every sign of being an excellent diplomat and King” - Knight
REFUTE

Answer 5

Iambic pentameter - formulaic and not genuine, Machiavellian character?
“auspicious” - lack of grief - link to BP

Question 6

“Ophelia is deprived of thought, SEXUALITY and language” - Showalter
SUPPORT

Answer 6

“fear it, Ophelia, fear it” - loss of purity is damaging to a female’s reputation, and so her family (harder to marry off)
Commodification of purity “chaste treasures” “taken these tenders for true pay”

Question 7

“Ophelia is deprived of THOUGHT, sexuality and LANGUAGE” - Showalter
SUPPORT

Answer 7

“think yourself a baby” “pretty” - belittled and infantilized by male figures
Banned from being able to “give words or talk with the lord Hamlet” - restriction of her actions and autonomy
compare “do not understand yourself” to “to thine own self be true” - double standard of men and women

Question 8

“women are either maiden saints or loathsome sinners, and the deciding factor is nearly always sex” - McGrory
SUPPORT - OPHELIA

Answer 8

“I shall obey, my lord.” - Ophelia’s obedience to her father, comment on structure.
“chaste treasure” - valued for her purity
FIND Q ON MAIDENHOOD

Question 9

“women are either maiden saints or loathsome sinners, and the deciding factor is nearly always sex” - McGrory
SUPPORT - GERTRUDE

Answer 9

Transforms at the end - sacrifice and repentance “my lord” redeems her in death
Beginning: “a beast that wants discourse of reason…” “post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets”

Question 10

“Ophelia is deprived of THOUGHT, sexuality and LANGUAGE” - Showalter
REFUTE

Answer 10

Madness gives her freedom
“pray you mark” “dangerous conjectures” “columbines” (represent deception and infidelity) - comments on corruption and freely speaks. Extremely verbose, dominates dialogue in comparison to previous scenes

Question 11

“all duties seem holy to Hamlet” - Van Goethe
SUPPORT

Answer 11

“a serpent stung me” - Claudius as unholy (serpent in garden of Eden) makes Hamlet’s opposition to him holy in comparison.
“thy commandment” - filial obligation, deifies his father (link to “Hyperion” and “Hercules”)

Question 12

“Hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent” - Johnson
SUPPORT

Answer 12

“I am bound to hear” - filial responsibility, Hamlet’s action is the bidding of his father (“thy commandment”)
Ghost speaks most in the scene - dominance

Question 13

“Hamlet can be privileged in madness to say things about the corruption of human behaviour” - Mack
SUPPORT

Answer 13

“fishmonger” “to be honest… is to be one man/picked out of ten thousand” - Hamlet uses madness as an excuse to criticise Polonius and the dishonesty of Denmark as a whole.
“I am but mad north-north-west”

Question 14

“Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action” - Hazlitt
SUPPORT

Answer 14

“unpregnant of my cause” “must like a whore unpack my heart with words” - laments his inaction/overthinking
“the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er by the pale cast of thought” - Hamlet’s inaction is a source of failure to him

Question 15

“Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action” - Hazlitt
REFUTE

Answer 15

Only a lack if one considers inaction to be medieval (violent) rather than renaissance (logic - plots to give an “antic disposition” and “catch the conscience of the king”)

Question 16

“Hamlet’s delay is due to… a form of melancholy” - Bradley
SUPPORT

Answer 16

“the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er by the pale cast of thought” “I am pigeon livered and lack gall”
“to my shame”

Question 17

“Hamlet’s delay is due to… a form of melancholy” - Bradley
REFUTE

Answer 17

overthinking and logic “I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven”
“antic-disposition”

Question 18

“The single characteristic of Hamlet’s character is by no means hesitation bit the strong conflux of contending forces” - Swinbourne
SUPPORT

Answer 18

Medieval vs renaissance mindset
“pigeon liver’d and lack gall”
“unpregnant of my cause” - purpose of an avenging prince
“a rogue and peasant slave”

Question 19

“Hamlet is a tragedy of thought” - Bradley
SUPPORT

Answer 19

“To be or not to be, that is the question” - parallel phrasing, debating death
“like a whore unpack my heart with words”

Question 20

“We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet” - Edwards
SUPPORT

Answer 20

“a fruit to that great feast”
Objectified in response to her relationship to Hamlet, Her fear is a result of Hamlet “affrighted” + madness (murdered Polonius)
“I have heard of your paintings”
EVEN IN HER MADNESS “let in the maid that out a maid never departed more”

Question 21

“We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet” - Edwards
REFUTE

Answer 21

Her madness seems independent of Hamlet “pray you mark”

Question 22

“Hamlet’s disgust at the feminine passivity in himself is translated into violent revulsion against women” - Swinbourne
SUPPORT

Answer 22

“like a whore…” “unpregnant” - Feminine descriptions of himself to comment on inaction - degrading.
Ophelia - “Get thee to a nunnery” (pun, prostitute or enforcement of purity) “bawd” “paintings” (deception)
Gertrude - “beast” “incestuous sheets”

Question 23

“Hamlet’s disgust at the feminine passivity in himself is translated into violent revulsion against women” - Swinbourne
REFUTE

Answer 23

simply a result of patriarchal ideas

Question 24

“Claudius is not a monster, he is morally weak” - Mabillard
SUPPORT
Branagh version - confession booth

Answer 24

3.3 Soliloquy
“bosom black as death” - aware of his corruption and wishes for improvement “wash it white as snow”
but “heart with strings of steel”, struggle to repent

Question 25

“Claudius is not a monster, he is morally weak” - Mabillard
REFUTE
Tennant version (smirk)

Answer 25

3.3 soliloquy
“heart with strings of steel” “my crown, mine own ambition, and my queen” Unrepentant and unable to give up his desires “to double business bound” - lies to God in seeking repentance but not letting go

Question 26

“Claudius’ soliloquy gives the impression of rhetorical pageantry rather than sincere contrition” - Arnold
SUPPORT (3.3)

Answer 26

Not genuine.
“words fly up, my thoughts remain below” “heart with strings of steel”

Question 27

“throughout the play, the covert drama of reformation vies for priority with overt drama of revenge” - Adelman
SUPPORT

Answer 27

Claudius’ soliloquy
Gertrude “I pray you pardon me” - redemption at the end

Question 28

“Gertrude is a moral defective” - Muir
SUPPORT

Answer 28

Guilt - “speak no more/These words like daggers enter in my ears” “The lady doth protest too much”

Question 29

“The ghost is the linchpin of Hamlet” - Wilson
SUPPORT

Answer 29

“sweep to my revenge” and “antic disposition” suggested by the ghost (filial responsibility)
Causes reconciliation w/ Gertrude “leave her to heaven”

Question 30

“The ghost is the linchpin of Hamlet” - Wilson
REFUTE

Answer 30

The incest was an issue before Ghost’s presence “incestuous sheets” “Hyperion to a satyr” WAS ALWAYS TENSION - psychologically complex

Question 31

“Through madness Ophelia suddenly makes a forceful assertion of her being” - Charney
SUPPORT

Answer 31

“columbines” and loss of “violets” - comments on corruption of the court
“dangerous conjectures”
“pray you mark” and is most verbose in scene - heard (contrast to “I shall obey” and “think yourself a baby”)

Question 32

“Hamlet’s madness is associated with intellectual and imaginative genius, but Ophelia’s affliction is erotomania or love-madness” (Showalter)
REFUTE

Answer 32

Ophelia comments on “dangerous conjectures”
Hamlet - Cowardly “His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy” “Lack gall”

Question 33

“Laertes is like a hurricane. He rushes into the palace in an uncontrolled rage, roaring for blood” - Prosser
SUPPORT

Answer 33

“Enter Laertes with followers”
“I dare damnation”
“That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me a Bastard”
Laertes’ rage is a foil to Hamlet’s passivity

Question 34

Ophelia is a “lesser we have never really known” - Kerrigan
SUPPORT

Answer 34

Even in death she gains no identity “Mermaid-like” “creature native and indued”

Question 35

“In the final act, Hamlet accepts his world and we discover a different man” - Mack
SUPPORT

Answer 35

Acceptance of death (less fear) - “undiscovered country” to “Imperious Caesar, dead and turn’d to clay” “returneth to dust”

Question 36

“Hamlet is a tragedy without catharsis” - Frye
SUPPORT

Answer 36

Link to Aristotle “pity and fear” and Hamlet’s self-doubt (less heroic)

Question 37

“Hamlet poses great problems for the tragic hero theory because he is patently not a hero” - O’Toole
SUPPORT

Answer 37

His own doubt “lack gall” “rogue and a peasant slave”

Question 38

“Hamlet poses great problems for the tragic hero theory because he is patently not a hero” - O’Toole
REFUTE

Answer 38

Restores order (genre needs a rule - YF)
Redeems his mother and kills Claudius “like a soldier” “prov’d most royal” - becomes a hero in death