hamlet critics Flashcards
Diplomat
Knight
Claudius shows every sign of being an excellent diplomat and king
T.S. Eliot
The opening scene of Hamlet is as well constructed as that of any play ever written
Deprivation
Showalter
Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality, and language
Rogers
In Shakespeare’s society, the ideal female is cherished for her youth, beauty, and purity
Von Goethe
All duties seem holy to Hamlet
Johnson
Hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent
Madness
Mack
Hamlet can be privileged in madness to say things about the corruption of human nature
Incapability
Hazlitt
Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action
Delay
Bradley
Hamlet’s delay is due to… a form of melancholy
Swinbourne
The single characteristic of Hamlet’s character is by no means hesitation but the strong conflux of contending forces
Tragedy
Bradley
Hamlet is a tragedy of thought
Edwards
We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet
Showalter quoting Leverenz
Hamlet’s disgust at the feminine passivity in himself is translated into violent revulsion against women
Mabillard
Claudius is not a monster, he is morally weak
Arnold
Claudius’ soliloquy gives the impression of rhetorical pageantry rather than sincere contrition
Muir
Gertrude is a moral defective
Wilson
The ghost is the linchpin of Hamlet
Charney
Through madness, Ophelia suddenly makes a forceful assertion of her being
Madness
Showalter
Hamlet’s madness is associated with intellectual and imaginative genius, but Ophelia’s affliction is erotomania or love-madness
Kerrigan
Ophelia is a lesser we have never really known
Drama
Adelman
Throughout the play, the covert drama of reformation vies for priority with the overt drama of revenge
Motivation
Adelman
Even as an avenger, Hamlet seems motivated more by his mother than by his father
Conduct
Hazlitt
His conduct to Ophelia is quite natural in his circumstances. It is that of assumed severity only. It is the effect of disappointed hope, of bitter regrets, of affection suspended, not obliterated, by the distractions of the scene around him
Marry/Wound Ophelia
Hazlitt
He could neither marry Ophelia, nor wound her mind by explaining the cause of his alienation
Coleridge
You will observe in Ophelia’s short and general answer to the speech of Laertes the natural carelessness of innocence, which cannot think such a code of cautions and prudences necessary to its own preservation
Final act
Mack
In the final act, Hamlet accepts his world and we discover a different man
Frye
Hamlet is a tragedy without catharsis
O’Toole
Hamlet poses great problems for the tragic hero theory because he is patently not a hero
McGrory
Women in Shakespeare are either maiden saints or loathsome sinners
Poison
Knight
Hamlet is in fact the poison in the veins of the community