Political Criticism Of Hammy

Question 1

Rex Gibson

Answer 1

” To remove Fortinbras from the play is to reduce its political implications

Hamlets personal agony in the context of a world of REALPOLITIK ( politics only concerned with keeping power, without regard for ethical principles)

A play about a society in the PROCESS OF CHANGEv

Denmark has moved from the stability of feudal chivalry to a troubled and unsettled world”

Question 2

Bertol Brecht

Answer 2

Play set at a ‘FRACTURE-POINT’ of society, between an older medieval feudal world and a Protestant one which rules out revenge

Question 3

Jan Kott

Answer 3

Argues that history, rather than fate or the gods, is the true cause of tragedy

Sees ‘Hamlet’ as a fable about totalitarian tyranny: “Elsinore’s a prison camp” Hamlet is a “despairing modern man” and Fortinbras, “the man of the strong arm” who with HISTORICAL INEVITABILITY takes over

Question 4

JW Lever

Answer 4

Firmly rejects the notion of a tragic hero, concentrating instead on the society in which he exists

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