Hamlet: Introduction By Phillip Edwards (The Play and the Critics) Flashcards
Dr Johnson (1765) spoke of the
‘Useless and wanton cruelty’ of his treatment of Ophelia, and of the speech in the prayer scene, when Hamlet refrains from killing Claudius for fear he will go to heaven, he said it was ‘too horrible to be read or to be uttered’.
The audience have a right to expect ‘poetical justice’ of the punishment of Claudius. But this is thwarted by the death of Ophelia and Hamlet himself.
Hamlet indeed is ‘rather an instrument than an agent’, and ‘makes no attempt to punish’ Claudius after confirmation of his guilt.
‘George Stevens’ (1778) was strongly and unfavourably impressed by Hamlet’s
Violence and Callousness; he said it was more necessary to point out ‘the immoral tendency of his character’ ‘because Hamlet seems to have been hitherto regarded as a hero not undeserving of the pity of the audience’
Henry McKenzie (1780) thought Hamlet was a man of…
Exquisite sensibility and virtue ‘placed in a situation in which even the amiable qualities of his mind serve but to aggravate his distress and perplex his conduct’. Hamlet is not perfect,but from our compassion and anxiety concerning him arises that ‘indescribable charm… Which attracts every reader and every spectator’
Goethes criticism (1812)
Hamlet essentially is a story of inadequacy and impotence of sensitivity in the face of the stern demands of action.
Coleridge understands Hamlets impotence as something quite different…
His Hamlet is not a man broken under the weight of too demanding an obligation, but a man simply incapable of acting. ‘Shakespeare wished to impress upon us the truth, that action is the chief end of existence’ Hamlet knows perfectly well that what he ought to do, and he is always promising to do it, but he is constitutionally averse to action, and his energy evaporates in self reproach. The world of mind was more real than the external world; his passion was for the indefinite.
Hazlitt (1817) identifying ones self with Hamlet…
The speeches and sayings are ‘as real as our own thoughts… It is we who are Hamlet’
Herman Ulrici (1839)
Of the ghost he says ‘it cannot be a pure and heavenly spirit that wonders on earth to stimulate his son to avenge his murder.’
Friedriche Nietzsche in ‘The Birth of Tragedy’ (1872)…
Found that Hamlet ‘speaks more superficially than he acts’ ; there is something deeper going on in the play than finds appropriate expression in the speeches.
