Hamlet’s Character

Question 1

Coleridge (1818), on Hamlet & Action

Answer 1

“Hamlet wished to impress upon us, the truth, that action is the chief end of existence”

Question 2

Goethe (1795), on Hamlet’s suitability as Revenge Hero

Answer 2

“ Shakespeare sought to depict a great deed laid upon a soul unequal to the performance of it”

Question 3

Goethe (1795), on Hamlet’s nature

Answer 3

“A beautiful, pure, noble, and most moral nature”

Question 4

Coleridge (1818), on Hamlet Thinking Too Much

Answer 4

He lost “the power of action in the energy of resolve”

Question 5

Schlegel (1809), on Hamlet’s weakness

Answer 5

“ ..his weaknesses to apparent: he does himself…no greater dissimilarity then between himself and Hercules. “

Question 6

Schlegel (1809), on Hamlet’s Lack of Belief

Answer 6

“ Hamlet has no firm belief either in himself or in anything else. “

Question 7

Schlegel (1809), on Hamlet’s Sorrow

Answer 7

“ He is too much overwhelmed with his own sorrow to have any compassion to spare for others. “

Question 8

Hazlitt (1817), on Hamlet and the Audience

Answer 8

“ It is we who are Hamlet. “

Question 9

Hazlitt (1817), on Hamlet’s Action

Answer 9

“ Hamlet’s powers of action have been eaten up by thought. “

Question 10

H A Taine (1863), on Hamlet’s Control over his Action

Answer 10

“He is not master of his acts; occasion dictates them”

Question 11

Harley Granville - Barker (1937), on Hamlet’s Inaction

Answer 11

“Here is a tragedy of inaction; the centre of it is Hamlet“

Question 12

A C Bradley (1904), Criticism of his Criticism

Answer 12

It focuses on the character as a living, breathing person, rather than a literary construct. He falls into the trap of trying to reduce Shakespearean tragedy to a formula: the tragic hero is someone suffering from a particular weakness of character.

Question 13

A C Bradley (1904), on Fate & Hamlet’s Heroism

Answer 13

“ Fate descends upon his enemies, and his mother, and himself.“

Question 14

John Holloway, on the Role that Hamlet Takes

Answer 14

“ There is a sense on Hamlet’s part that he is discharging a role…It is now possible, however, to see the stress on delay in the soliloquies as being not so much for the sake of stress and delay in itself, as of showing how the protagonist is preoccupied with his role, in order to stress that it is indeed a role: It a recognisable part, undertaken by him, with what might almost be termed a pre-ordained course and end.“

Question 15

Philip Edwards, on Hamlet’s Failure

Answer 15

“ There is no doubt of the extent of Hamlet!s failure. In trying to restore the beauticious Majesty of Denmark, he has brought the country into an even worse state in the hands of a foreigner. “

Question 16

J W Lever, on Tragedy & the Fatal Flaw

Answer 16

“ The fundamental flaw is the world they inhabit: in the political state, the social order it upholds…”

Question 17

Alex Newell, on ‘To Be or Not To Be’

Answer 17

“ Entirely motivated by reason, untouched by passion. In its academic method and style, the speech carries the stamp of Hamlet’s identity as a student, formally posing a question or topic for debate. “

Question 18

Josipovici

Answer 18

“Hamlet is a merge of the tragic hero and the clown figure”

Question 19

Dr Johnson

Answer 19

Ha,let is an instrument rather than an agent

Question 20

Romantic Critics thought…

Answer 20

Hamlets introspective approach led to inaction because one who focuses on one’s internal emotional state cannot act.

Spiritual agony and the searing insight of an individual alienated from society was a theme close to romantic sensibility.