Hamlet Critical Views

Question 1

H - Joes

Answer 1

‘Hamlet’s interview with his mother… expresses itself in that most physical disgust which is so characteristic of intensely ‘repressed’ sexual feeling’

Question 2

H - Bradley (duty)

Answer 2

‘Hamlet is unable to carry out the sacred duty, imposed by divine authority, of punishing an evil man by death’

Question 3

H - Van Goethe

Answer 3

‘all duties seem holy for Hamlet’

Question 4

H - Swinburne

Answer 4

‘the single characteristic of Hamlet’s innermost nature is by no means irresolution or hesitation but rather the strong conflux of contending forces’

Question 5

H - Johnson

Answer 5

‘Hamlet is… rather an instrument than an agent’

Question 6

H - Knight

Answer 6

‘he is in fact the poison in the veins of the community’

Question 7

H - Bradley (thought)

Answer 7

‘tragedy of thought’

Question 8

H - Bradley (intellect)

Answer 8

‘is connected with intellectual nature rather than with any yielding passion’

Question 9

H - Showalter (womanish)

Answer 9

‘Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality and language… she represents the strong emotions that the Elizabethans thought womanish’

Question 10

H - Goldman

Answer 10

‘the Ghost has brought purgatory into the real world as Hamlet can’t rest until he’s taken revenge’

Question 11

H - Campbell and Quinn

Answer 11

‘Hamlet is no Pagan avenger of Icelandic saga, but a Christian Elizabethan who adopted the current confused beliefs of his age about ghosts’

Question 12

H - Showalter (madness)

Answer 12

‘representational bonds between female insanity and female sexuality’

Question 13

H - Smith (corruption)

Answer 13

‘Polonius seems to love his children; he seems to have the welfare of the kingdom in mind. His means of action, however, are totally corrupt’

Question 14

H - Smith (bait)

Answer 14

‘trained his daughter to be obedient and chaste and is able to use her as a piece of bait for spying’

Question 15

H - Graf

Answer 15

‘is in fact protecting her son from the man who murdered her husband’

Question 16

H - Mabillard

Answer 16

‘it is her sexuality that turns Hamlet so violently against her’

Question 17

H - Jones

Answer 17

‘Hamlet has a deeper loathing for Claudius’ incest with the Queen then the murder of his own father’

Question 18

H - Muir

Answer 18

‘a sense of infection surrounds both Claudius’ crime and guilt in Gertrude’s sin’

Question 19

H - Altick

Answer 19

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

Question 20

H - Watson

Answer 20

‘the sense of honour, the desire for virtue, is then deeply implanted in the soul of the Renaissance gentleman’

Question 21

Purgatory - American Heritage Dictionary

Answer 21

‘a state in which the souls of those who have died in grace must expiate their sins’

Question 22

H - Matheson

Answer 22

‘for him it carries the residual force of a religious obligation’

Question 23

H - Bradley (fate)

Answer 23

‘believes in the existence of a divine order, but at the same time feels himself to be caught in a web of fate over which he has no control’

Question 24

H - Todd

Answer 24

‘he is an impulsive man of action’

Question 25

H - Hazlitt

Answer 25

'his ruling passion is to think not to act'

Question 26

H - Bluer

Answer 26

'Hamlet intellectualises his revenge, knowing to would be wrong to commit cold-blooded murder and lower himself to the moral level of Claudius'

Question 27

H - Macrae

Answer 27

'Hamlet's revenge is pure revenge. Fortinbras' is militaristic, strong-arm revenge. Laertes' is a corrupt and poisoned revenge'

Question 28

H - Schofield

Answer 28

'He has the persuasiveness and physical courage of a ruler, but is morally empty'

Question 29

H - Eliot

Answer 29

'the Mona Lisa of literature'

Question 30

Hamlet feminist criticism - Jardine (1996)

Answer 30

Questions the 'play's burden of guilt' which is often placed on Gertrude by other critics instead of Hamlet

Question 31

Hamlet feminist criticism - Charney and Charney (1977)

Answer 31

Argues Ophelia's madness 'enables her to assert her being', freeing her from duty and expectations

Question 32

Hamlet feminist criticism - Massai (2018)

Answer 32

Describes the play as 'fiercely misogynistic'. Notes Gertrude's compassion for Ophelia and how, in context of royal families, her marriage to Claudius is justifiable. Also women are unable to represent themselves, speaking 4% of lines each in the play

Question 33

Hamlet feminist criticism - Lenerenz (1978)

Answer 33

Described Ophelia as a used and exploited character which leads to her madness

Question 34

What is Marxist literary theory?

Answer 34

The examination of how people are conditioned by socio-economic conditions and class struggles - how power is treated in a text

Question 35

Hamlet Marxist theory - Eagleton

Answer 35

Hamlet is 'unable to find self-definition' and is resistant to play the roles that society expects of him

Question 36

Hamlet Marxist theory - Holderness

Answer 36

The play dramatises fundamental changes in Elizabethan society, with Claudius as the new vision of statemanship

Question 37

The character of Hamlet from a Marxist view - Holderness

Answer 37

'stranded between the two worlds'

Question 38

Hamlet can't be chivalrous - Holderness

Answer 38

'unable to emulate the heroic values of his father'

Question 39

Hamlet can't be diplomatic - Holderness

Answer 39

'unable to engage with the modern world of political diplomacy'

Question 40

Hamlet Marxist theory - Shapiro

Answer 40

Tension results from the old forces of chivalry giving wat to Protestantism and capitalism

Question 41

What is a psychoanalytical interpretation of Hamlet's relationship with Gertrude?

Answer 41

Gertrude and Hamlet's Oedipal feelings for her is the reason for his psychological torment, inability to act and failed relationship with Ophelia

Question 42

What is a psychoanalytical interpretation of Hamlet's relationship with Claudius?

Answer 42

Hamlet has a subconscious sense of affinity with Claudius as he fulfilled his repressed desire of killing Old Hamlet and marrying Gertrude - sense of gratitude?

Question 43

What is the Madonna/Whore dichotomy?

Answer 43

The idea that women are either totally pure and chaste or promiscuous and sinful with no inbetween - polarising

Question 44

How may Hamlet express the Madonna/Whore dichotomy?

Answer 44

Gertrude's marriage taints Hamlet's perception of all women - especially Ophelia

Question 45

What does Freud argue about Hamlet's nature?

Answer 45

He shows little affectation of conscience in killing Polonius and R+G which suggests his inaction toward Claudius and Gertrude has deeper psychological roots

Question 46

H - Ghose

Answer 46

'Hamlet's life is filled with many identities'

Question 47

H - Mack

Answer 47

'the play within the play tends to dissolve the normal barriers between the fictive and the real'

Question 48

H - Charles

Answer 48

'no one in the play knows or understands anyone else'