Hamlet Critics Flashcards
‘When the bad bleed then the tragedy is good.’
Middleton, 1606
‘Revenge is a kind of wild justice.’
Bacon, 1625
‘[The depiction of Ophelia is] lewd and unreasonable.’
Collier, 1698
‘Hamlet’s conduct [is] cruel… there is something very bloody in it, so inhuman, so unworthy of a hero.’
Hanmer, 1736
‘Hamlet is… rather an instrument than an agent.’
Johnson, 1765
‘the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetic topic in the world.’
Poe, 1846
‘Melancholia [is] at the root of Hamlet’s problems.’
Bradley, 1904
‘[Hamlet] may even seem a monster of inconsistency.’
Wilson, 1935
‘Ophelia has no chance to develop an independent conscience of her own, so stifled is she by the authority of the male world.’
Dusinberre, 1975
‘The identity of the ghost is secondary to its effect upon Hamlet.’
King, 1982
‘The ghost… dominates… even in his absence.’
Hawkes, 1986
‘Male power is restored through… the vilification of women.’
Traub, 1988
‘Ophelia’s dead, virginial body is fetishized by Hamlet and Laertes alike… the grave [is] a site of masculine competition… Laertes and Hamlet fight over the right to Ophelia’s chastity… the right and rite of sexual possession.’
Traub, 1988
‘Hamlet is presented as fashionably introspective and melancholy while Ophelia becomes alienated, acting out the madness Hamlet only plays at.’
Neely, 1991
‘The Ophelia figure was a kind of feminine ideal: totally passive, sexualised, and utterly defined by her romantic relationships.’
Ingram, 2005
