Hamlet Critical Views Flashcards
Oedipus Complex - Joes
‘Hamlet’s interview with his mother… expresses itself in that most physical disgust which is so characteristic of intensely ‘repressed’ sexual feeling’
Inaction - Bradley
‘Hamlet is unable to carry out the sacred duty, imposed by divine authority, of punishing an evil man by death’
Duty - Van Goethe
‘all duties seem holy for Hamlet’
Indecision - Swinburne
‘the single characteristic of Hamlet’s innermost nature is by no means irresolution or hesitation but rather the strong conflux of contending forces’
Instrument - Johnson
‘Hamlet is… rather an instrument than an agent’
Villainy - Knight
‘he is in fact the poison in the veins of the community’
Overthinking - Bradley
‘tragedy of thought’
Intellect - Bradley
‘is connected with intellectual nature rather than with any yielding passion’
Misogyny - Showalter
‘Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality and language… she represents the strong emotions that the Elizabethans thought womanish’
Revenge - Goldman
‘the Ghost has brought purgatory into the real world as Hamlet can’t rest until he’s taken revenge’
Religious context - Campbell and Quinn
‘Hamlet is no Pagan avenger of Icelandic saga, but a Christian Elizabethan who adopted the current confused beliefs of his age about ghosts’
Female madness - Showalter
‘representational bonds between female insanity and female sexuality’
Polonius’ character - Smith
‘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’
Polonius corruption - Smith
‘trained his daughter to be obedient and chaste and is able to use her as a piece of bait for spying’
Gertrude - Graf
‘is in fact protecting her son from the man who murdered her husband’
Gertrude’s sexuality - Mabillard
‘it is her sexuality that turns Hamlet so violently against her’
Incest - Jones
‘Hamlet has a deeper loathing for Claudius’ incest with the Queen then the murder of his own father’
Disease and corruption - Muir
‘a sense of infection surrounds both Claudius’ crime and guilt in Gertrude’s sin’
Claudius is responsible - Altick
‘the cunning and lecherousness of Claudius’ evil has corrupted the whole kingdom of Denmark’
Honour - Watson (the S of H, the D for V, is then DI in the S of the RG))
‘the sense of honour, the desire for virtue, is then deeply implanted in the soul of the Renaissance gentleman’
Purgatory - American Heritage Dictionary
‘a state in which the souls of those who have died in grace must expiate their sins’
Religious obligation - Matheson
‘for him it carries the residual force of a religious obligation’
Fate and Hamlet - Bradley (B in the E of a DO, but at the same TF himself to be C in a W of F over which he has no C)
‘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’
On Laertes as a foil for Hamlet - Todd
‘he is an impulsive man of action’
Hamlet’s lack of action - Hazlitt
‘his ruling passion is to think not to act’
Morality and inaction - Bluer (HI his R, K it would be W to C C-B M and lower himself to the M L of C’
‘Hamlet intellectualises his revenge, knowing to would be wrong to commit cold-blooded murder and lower himself to the moral level of Claudius’
Differences in revenge - Macrae (HR is PR. F is M, S-A R. L is a C and P R’
‘Hamlet’s revenge is pure revenge. Fortinbras’ is militaristic, strong-arm revenge. Laertes’ is a corrupt and poisoned revenge’
Claudius’ leadership - Schofield
‘He has the persuasiveness and physical courage of a ruler, but is morally empty’
