Hamlet Critical Quotes

Question 1

Lee Edwards on Ophelia

Answer 1

“We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet’

Question 2

Elaine Showalter on Ophelia (2)

Answer 2

• “The Romantic Ophelia feels too much, as Hamlet thinks too much; she drowns in a surfeit of feeling.”
• “She appears in only 5 of the plays 20 scenes, and her tragedy is subordinate to that of Hamlet.”

Question 3

Eli Siegel on Ophelia

Answer 3

“Ophelia is one of the least self-critical beings imaginable”

Question 4

Emi Hamana on Ophelia

Answer 4

“Suffers a series of patriarchal oppressions”

Question 5

Toshiko Oshio on Ophelia

Answer 5

“Inability to express herself by means to words”

Question 6

Rebecca Smith on Ophelia

Answer 6

“Only concern is pleasing others”

Question 7

Marguerite Tassi on Gertrude

Answer 7

“in fulfilling her tragic role, the end crowns all; in the final moments of her life, she performs an extraordinary act that gives Hamlet motive and cue for killing the King’

Question 8

GF Bradby on Gertrude

Answer 8

“a character of ambiguous morality whom we can never fully know”

Question 9

TS Eliot on Gertrude

Answer 9

“negative and insignificant”

Question 10

Tamara Tubb on Gertrude’s character

Answer 10

“the true nature of her character and motivation is ambiguous.”

Question 11

Michael Pennington on Polonious (3)

Answer 11

“a bad parent”
“made palatable by the fact that he is funny”
“between knave and fool, most performances fall to one side or the other”

Question 12

Richard Altick on Claudius

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Carla Stockton on Claudius

Answer 13

“clearly the antagonist”

Question 14

LC Knights on Claudius

Answer 14

a “slimy beast” with “unctuous verse rhythms”

Question 15

Samuel Johnson on Polonious

Answer 15

“knowing in retrospect and ignorant in foresight.”

Question 16

Frank Kermode on the play itself (2)

Answer 16

“obsessed with doubles”

“shifting register not only of action but also of language”

Question 17

Voltaire on the play itself

Answer 17

“a vulgar and barbarous tragedy”

Question 18

Harold Bloom on the play itself

Answer 18

“after four centuries, is still the most experimental play ever written,”

Question 19

Harold Bloom on characterisation

Answer 19

“before Shakespeare there was characterisation, after Shakespeare there were characters.”

Question 20

Linda Charnes on characterisation

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Sigmund Freud on Hamlet’s delay

Answer 21

“the play is built up on Hamlet’s hesitations over fulfilling the task of revenge that is assigned to him; but its text offers no reasons or motives for these hesitations”

Question 22

Harold Bloom on Hamlet (3)

Death, Melancholy, Character

Answer 22

“I set aside the prevalent judgment that the deepest cause of his melancholia is his mourning for the dead father and his outrage at his mother’s sexuality,”

“For Hamlet himself, death is not tragic but an apotheosis.”

“the hero-villain”

Question 23

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE on Hamlet

Answer 23

“A pure, noble, highly moral disposition, but without the energy of soul which constitutes the hero, sinks under a load which it can neither support nor resolve to abandon. All his obligations are sacred to him, but this alone is above his powers. An impossibility is required at his hands–not an impossibility in itself, but that which is so to him.”

Question 24

Sean McEvoy on Claudius as a good King (3)

Answer 24

“Claudius can be seen to be an effective, modern rule”

“a strong monarch, like Claudius, might well be thought preferable to a weak but virtuous one: and probably better than someone like Hamlet, whose sanity is in doubt and who cannot act with decisiveness.”

“Claudius displays a measured rationality”

Question 25

Sean McEvoy on Claudius’ love for Gertrude

Answer 25

“The audience gets the impression that Claudius genuinely loves Gertrude in a manner which contrasts greatly with Hamlet’s feelings for Ophelia.”

Question 26

Sean McEvoy on Hamlet

Answer 26

“In the first half of the play, Hamlet certainly looks for the audience’s sympathy”

Question 27

Marcella McCarthy on Laertes

Answer 27

“In many ways Laertes seems to be the revenger that Hamlet longs to be,”

Question 28

Dr Samuel Johnson on Hamlet not taking the opportunity to kill Claudius when he could

Answer 28

“too horrible to be read or uttered”

Question 29

A.C. Bradley on Hamlet and Gertrude

Answer 29

“…Hamlet’s chief desire… is to save Gertrude’s soul.”

Question 30

Ernest Jones on Hamlet and Gertrude

Answer 30

“Hamlet’s long “repressed” desire to take his father’s place in his mother’s affection is stimulated to unconscious activity by the sight of Claudius usurping this place exactly as he himself had once longed to do.”

Question 31

Graham Holderness on the actions of the Ghost and Hamlet

Answer 31

“Have Hamlet and the Ghost between them succeeded in setting the world to rights, or rather in plunging it into chaos, wiping out the entire Danish royal family and allowing the state to fall into the hands of a soldier of fortune?”

Question 32

Harold Bloom on Hamlet’s consciousness

Answer 32

“infinite, unlimited, and at war with itself.”

Question 33

Kate Flint says Hamlet embodies…

Answer 33

“the melancholic’s inability to adjust to his situation”

Question 34

Maynard Mack says characters…

Answer 34

“can be privileged in madness to say things.”

Question 35

Tamara Tubb on Gertrude and her relationship with Hamlet and revenge

Answer 35

“Not only is Gertrude a key figure in the events which inspire and compel Hamlet’s quest for revenge, but she is also instrumental in the actualisation of that revenge.”

“Despite being overwrought Gertrude is able to muster her resolve and come to the aid of her son. “

Question 36

Frank Kermode on the pace of the play

Answer 36

“although ‘Hamlet’ is an extremely active, indeed feverishly energetic play, it does move forward slowly.”

“it is not only Hamlet but his play that delays”