Drama: H- Critics

Question 1

Greenblatt

Answer 1

the ghost symbolises tension between Catholicism and Protestantism.

Question 2

Greenblatt quote to support/challenge key point

Answer 2

The quote “My hour is almost come, when I to sulph’rous and tormenting flames must render up myself” supports Greenblatt

Question 3

Psychoanalytical critics

Answer 3

Hamlet is a deeply flawed character who is controlled by his Id (component of Freud’s theory that distinguished the difference between the ego= socially acceptable action, and Id= hidden impulses that the ego overrides.)
This critic could also link to Filroy

Question 4

Psychoanalytical quote to support/challenge key point

Answer 4

The quote “To put an antic disposition on” supports psychoanalytical critics

Question 5

Lavery

Answer 5

the play reflects contemporary concerns about ‘national security and loyalty to an aging monarch’.

Question 6

Lavery quote to support/challenge key point

Answer 6

The quote “Was falsely borne in hand” supports Lavery

Question 7

French

Answer 7

Ophelia is a typical ‘in-law’ Jacobean woman, and Gertrude a typical, transgressive ‘out-law’ Jacobean woman.

Question 8

French quote to support/challenge key point

Answer 8

The quote “Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, whilst, like a puffed and reckless libertine, himself the primrose path of dalliance treads and recks not his own rede.” challenges French as it shown Ophelia speaking out and challenging her brother.

Question 9

Marxist critics

Answer 9

all relationships in the play are commodified (brought and sold), reflecting the emergence of capitalism

Question 10

(N/A)Marxist critics quote to support/challenge key point

Question 11

New historicists (focus on the text’s historical contexts deeply)

Answer 11

the end of feudalism (triangle societal system with the Pope/Church at the top working down in ranks of nobility to peasants) and emergence of capitalism is reflected in the relationships in the play.

Question 12

(N/A)New Historicist quote to support/challenge key point

Question 12

Feminist criticism

Answer 12

women are silenced in the play

Question 13

(N/A)Feminist criticism quote to support/challenge key point

Question 14

Filroy

Answer 14

Hamlet is not a tragic hero- not noble or heroic but an ‘everyman’, an ordinary or typical human being

Question 15

(N/A)Filroy quote to support/challenge key point

Question 16

Robinson

Answer 16

Males in the play represent Shakespeare’s attack on the patriarchy

Question 17

(N/A)Robinson quote to support/challenge key point

Question 18

Adelman

Answer 18

Hamlet has to choose between two fathers and Gertrude places herself in the middle of the conflict

Question 19

(N/A)Adelman quote to support/challenge key point