Hamlet critics Flashcards
Frank Kermode
repetitionand “doublind and antithetical phrases” such as “This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him” (1.1). Helps to create duality and contradiction that permeate the play. Hamlet is “obsessed with doubles of all kinds, and notably by its use of the figure knows as hendiadys.” Doubling used as a delaying tactic: allow tension adn menace to build up. Seeing the world in a double vision.
Kermode’s comment on prefixes
“conjoined…re-word” (3.4). Paradoxes and oxymorons form contradictions through “the conjunctions of what is ordinarily disjunct” - compressed parallels emphasis the anomaly of the situation and the relationship combinations (sister/queen and father/uncle)
Interrogative mode
Knowledge has traditionally been imparted through questioning, as in the Catholic catechism and Socratic dialogues; Hamlet is taking on the mantle of temporal judge and spiritual inquisitor by adopting the interrogative mode (Horatio 1.2, satements sounds like questions “what a peice of work is man… how all occasions do inform against me”). It is wanting to know that distinguishes higher beings from lower. Hamlet began questions has come to trust in a providence that ordains and shapes our ends - arrives at a state of acceptance “The readiness is all” (5.2) eventhough he knows it means his death is imminent.
Polonius’s speech (his farewell to Laertes in 1.3)
resounds with tautology and received wisdom, which are themselves types of repetition. Prolix pontificating reveals a paucity of matter and clumsiness of style. Kermode “popous tedious… complusive duplication”
Characteristic of Hamlet’s language
“quintessence of dust” (2.2) “paragon of animals” (2.2) oxymorons enable him to yoke together opposites to convey the paradox that is the human being.
Stichomythia
draw attention to wordplay as a combat, a parallel to fencing, and to the relationship between the pen and sword, the word and the action
W.Clemen points out
the absence of hyperbole in Hamlet’s language. “Hamlet prefers to keep his language within the cope of rality, indeed, within the everyday world”
Polonius is a “man of maxims”, whereas Hamlet is….
…a man of ideas, hence uses words in a consdiered, precise and individual way. Polonius and Claudius express ther persona through the sententious and general, thereby distancing themselves from events and people with their banalities and effusions; whereas Hamlet takes everything personally, “in a language which bears the stamp of a unique and personal experience” (Clemen)
Hamlet shows a disposition to fall into…
…rhyming at moments of high emotional tension
Hamlet is touched by all forms of epic narrative - tragic drama, myth, legends, ballads and proverbs - the genre which inspire humans to aspire.
Hamlet puts high value on words at the beginning of the play (befits a student), he comes to distrust them as when corrupted they form part of the armoury of disguise. His last words are “the rest is silence” - words in the end are not enough they can neither achieve justive nor honour.
