Hamlet Normal Critics Flashcards
Edwards, Ophelia
“We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet”
Gardner, Personal Morality
“The hero descends with alacrity to the moral level of his opponent.”
Bleiman, Feminism
“Daughters would have been expected to be entirely obedient to their fathers, yet Shakespeare’s daughters challenge patriarchal authority at every turn”
Eliot, Hamlet (the play)
“Hamlet is the Mona Lisa of all Plays”
Leverenz (Public)
‘It is impossible for speaking truly in a public role without violating or being violated’
Helen Martin, Ophelia
“[Ophelia is] only interesting when she loses the little wits she had”
Leverenz, Ophelia
not allowed to love, and unable to be false, Ophelia breaks.
Schuking, Emotion
“Hamlet cannot be comprehended except as a study of emotion”
Stanton, Relationships
“Gertrude chooses a brother over a dead Hamlet, Ophelia chooses a father over a living Hamlet”
Scofield, Claudius
“Claudius is morally empty”
C.S Lewis (Hamlet)
Hamlet is haunted, not by a physical fear of dying, but of being dead
- death is the subject of Hamlet
Fernie, Death
[Hamlet’s] choice to be, at a deeper level, represents a profound and confirmed preference for not being.
