Hamlet Critics Flashcards
All duties seem holy to Hamlet
Von Goethe
Claudius is not a monster, he is morally weak
Mallibard
Claudius’ soliloquy gives the impression of rhetorical pageantry rather than sincere contrition
Arnold
Through madness, Ophelia suddenly makes a forceful assertion of her being
Charney
Laertes is like a hurricane. He rushes into the palace in an uncontrolled rage, roaring for blood
Prosser
The aim of tragedy is to arouse sensations of pity and fear
Aristotle
The opening scene of Hamlet is as well constructed as that of any play ever written
T.S. Eliot
Claudius shows every sign of being an excellent diplomat and king
Knight
Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality and language
Showalter
In Shakespeare’s society, the ideal female is cherished for her youth, beauty and purity
Rogers
Hamlet can be privileged in madness to say things about the corruption of human nature
Mack
Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action
Hazlitt
Hamlet’s delay is due to… a form of melancholy
Bradley
The single characteristic of Hamlet’s character is by no means hesitation but the strong conflux of contending forces
Swinbourne
Hamlet is a tragedy of thought
Bradley
We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet
Edwards
Gertrude is a moral defective
Muir
The ghost is the linchpin of Hamlet
Wilson
In the final act, Hamlet accepts his world and we discover a different man
Mack
Hamlet is a tragedy without catharsis
Frye
Women are either innocent maiden saints or loathsome sinners
Mcgrory
Polonius seems to love his children… his means of action however are totally corrupt
Smith
Natural carelessness of innocence (about Ophelia’s short and general answer to the long speech of Laertes)
Coleridge
Hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent
Johnson
Hamlet is motivated by reason
Newell
Hamlet’s disgust at the feminine passivity in himself is translated into violent revulsion against women
Lavarenz
The soliloquy of Ophelia, which follows, is the perfection of love - so exquisitely unselfish
Coleridge
Hamlet’s madness is associated with intellectual and imaginative genius, but Ophelia’s affection is erotomania or love-madness
Showalter
Ophelia is a ‘lesser we have never really known’
Kerrigan
Hamlet poses great problems for the tragic hero theory because he is patently not a hero
O’Toole
(Ophelia exhibits) strange and forced behaviour
Coleridge
Hamlet senses that he too has become part of a larger process… scripted by the divine playwright
Calderwood
the ghost is more than a narrative device
Greenblatt
Shakespearian tragedy is the genre of uncompensated suffering
Kastan
Hamlet has a penchant for playacting
Rosenburg
