Paper 1 AO5

Question 1

What does McEvoy say about Claudius?

Answer 1

He is an “effective modern ruler” who “genuinely loves Gertrude”

Question 2

What does Woods say that Hamlet does?

Answer 2

“polices the boundaries between performance and reality”

Question 3

What does Stephenson say the action of Hamlet is due to?

Answer 3

“Hamlet’s action is due to the utter failure and collapse of his plan to compromise the king by the Mouse Trap”

Question 4

What does Edwards say about Ophelia’s story?

Answer 4

“We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet”

Question 5

What does Hytner say about theatre in Hamlet?

Answer 5

It is a “weapon to discover the truth” that is a “loaded and complex metaphor in the play”

Question 6

What does Smith say about Hamlet (the character)?

Answer 6

He is “stuck, physically and mentally”

Question 7

What does Smith say about Hamlet (the play)?

Answer 7

It is a “play preoccupied with the past”

Question 8

What does Robinson say about Polonius’ death?

Answer 8

It is a “symbol of Shakespeare’s attack on patriarchy”

Question 9

What does Champion say about the roles of the soliloquies?

Answer 9

It “ultimately clarifies the protagonist’s personality”

Question 10

What does Wagner say about the role of Ophelia?

Answer 10

“Ophelia serves the play of Hamlet essentially as a useful device used by Hamlet, Polonius and Shakespeare himself”

Question 11

What does Knight say about Hamlet’s character?

Answer 11

“Hamlet is an element of evil in the state of Denmark”

Question 12

What does Knight say about Claudius’ responsibility?

Answer 12

“Claudius can hardly be blamed for his later actions. They are forced on him”

Question 13

What does Johnson say about Hamlet’s character?

Answer 13

“Hamlet is, through the whole play, rather an instrument than an agent”

Question 14

What does Shaw say about Hamlet’s revenge?

Answer 14

“If Hamlet had not delayed his revenge, there would’ve been no play”

Question 15

What does Shaw say about Hamlet’s madness?

Answer 15

“Hamlet feigns his madness episodically”

Question 16

What does Dreher say about Polonius?

Answer 16

“the most reprehensible father”

Question 17

What does Mack about Polonius?

Answer 17

“always either behind an arras or prying into one”

Question 18

What does Shucking say about the to be or not to be soliloquy?

Answer 18

“unlike the other soliloquies, this shows no sign of belonging to the particular scene in which it appears”

Question 19

What does Rosenblum say about Rossetti’s poetry?

Answer 19

“the central paradox of her career: that she became famous for speaking of silence and oblivion”

Question 20

What did the Saturday Review in 1877 say about Christina’s poetry?

Answer 20

“there is not much thinking in them, not much high or deep feeling”

Question 21

How does Virginia Woolf criticise Rossetti?

Answer 21

Her poetry is suffocated by her religious views.

Question 22

What does Lynda Palazzo say about The Goblin Market?

Answer 22

“Rossetti has radically rewritten the fall of Eve (…) and includes more than a hint that male gender oppression be interpreted as original sin”

Question 23

What does Simone de Beauvoir say about women and objects?

Answer 23

“in a patriarchal culture woman inevitably experiences herself as object and other”

Question 24

What does Bowra say about Rossetti’s sentiments about love?

Answer 24

“love released a melancholy desire for death”

Question 25

What does Sarah Bose describe Mrs Cheverley’s actions as?

Answer 25

“Mrs Cheverley’s wrongdoing is obvious: she invades male power. It is noteworthy that she is not the only outsider in this social world but the only one utterly rejected “

Question 26

What does Avery say about Rossetti’s relationship with gender?

Answer 26

her relationship with gender is “complicated”

Question 27

How does Wilson criticise Polonius?

Answer 27

“Polonius chooses his career over his daughter’s well being”

Question 28

How does Knight sympathise with Claudius?

Answer 28

“Claudius can hardly be blamed for his later actions. They are forced on him

Question 29

What does Kerrigan say about Hamlet?

Answer 29

“Hamlet never promises to revenge, only to remember”

Question 30

What does Adelman think about Hamlet?

Answer 30

“Even as an avenger, Hamlet seems to be more motivated by his mother than his father”

Question 31

Which two critics sympathise with Claudius?

Answer 31

McEvoy and Knight agree that Claudius is a “modern ruler” who was forced into his later actions in the play and that he genuinely loves Gertrude.

Question 32

Which two critics denounce the importance of Ophelia’s role in the play?

Answer 32

Edwards and Wagner agree that “Ophelia would have no story without Hamlet” since she is merely a device used by “Hamlet, Polonius and Shakespeare himself” to drive the plot.

Question 33

Which three critics denounce Polonius?

Answer 33

Dreher, Mack and Wilson agree that Polonius is simply “the most reprehensible father” who is “always either behind an arras or prying into one” as he “chooses his career over his daughter’s well-being”

Question 34

Which Rossetti poems talk about women’s place in society?

Answer 34

Maude Clare, From The Antique, Goblin Market, Soeur Louise

Question 35

Which Rossetti poems talk about sexual redemption?

Answer 35

Soeur Louise, Goblin Market

Question 36

Which two critics disagree on Wilde’s stance on feminism

Answer 36

While Green claims fhat “Wilde’s work with The Woman’s Weekly was proto-feminist”,
Mendelssohn claims that Wilde has been celebrated “as a transgressor of gender boundaries “ yet “Wilde also acted as an advocate of gender boundaries in a way that challenges this reputation”