Quotes AO2 Flashcards
opens the play immediately representing the corrupted body politic and the obsession both with uncertainty and Denmarks honour
appearance vs reality is big theme yet there is no discrepancy between private and public spheres
sentinel says “whos there?” “long live the king” “stand and unfold yourself”
calls the force to reveal themselves but also to reveal what they are hiding; “fold” connotes something hidden
Claudius speech Machiavellian represents lack of discrepancy between private and public- addressing lords and family
arg a strong stable monarchy before hand which H disrupts
anaphoras of “our”
“t” repetition very calculated speech
“our whole kingdom contracted in one brow of woe”
nostalgia- his speech like his court is haunted by nostalgia of the old world
Paul Woodruff “usurpation and murder are concealed by a carefully fostered ideology of divine right”
Old Hamlet strong belief in divine right- strong links to religion here is representative of the strong belief of James I in providence to the point where it becomes excuse. If Shakespeare is here mocking this and we know that in Denmark it is an elective monarchy NOT like in England, then Hamlet seems like a villain unnecessarily vengeful
“a serpent stung me.So the whole ear of Denmark..”
may be line break here, disconnect between him and the court and him and Hamlet- James I almost absolutist tendencies being commented on here- his banquets not mindful of wider context of economic situation
his attempt to sort f break through the walls and penetrate through the new world- revenge is ignorant of both time and religious cues
postlapsarian monarchy now “rankly abused”“ear”- corrupted body image symbollic of corrupted body politic
Denmark immediately introduced to us as an illigitimate or unstable monarchy as of forces from the past old world and even purgatorial world
nostalgia w ghost as anchor of old world- emphasises chaos of past to hamlet and neccessity to rid himself of this
hamlet and ghost relationship tension- creating significant internal conflict esp when reading this as purgatorial cathlic ghost Greenblatt vs the protestant denmark
also that Hamlets identity is never truly his own, he does not have a secure sense of it esp when scholar mixes w revenger- he absorbs the senencan revenger figure archetype imposed upon his by genre and by father- traditional invocation of fixing honour- genre
“remember me?… remember thee x2”
“ghost cries under stage” “swear”
ghost”mark me” vs ophelias “pray you mark”
hamlet then continues this cycle of nostalgia to Horatio “ i beseech you remember”
hamlet soul trapped
friction between identities and denmarks role in this
denmarks confines, supervision, cannot fufill role as revenger cannot embody what the genre wants him too
“denmark’s a prison” “many confines, wards and dungeons”
“to me it is a prison”
“the play’s the thing/ Wherein ill catch the conscience of the king” - even rhyming couplet now to end scene - he cannot lose scholarly figure it clenches onto him
“O God O God” disrupts iambic pentameter of the soliloquy mirroring his breaking constraints of a scholarly figure
“pigeon livered” belief at the time that yellow bile produced bravery, this he lacks
“o that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew”
Hamlet finally saying he will act…
“oh from this time forth/ my thought be bloody or nothing worth”- rhyming couplet still acting w passion and reason not impulse as traditional medieval social codes expect of him
Ophelia being timid and unexplored silenced women in plays general not only hamlet
” i think nothing my lord…what is, my lord”
“i shall obey, my lord”
polonius to Ophelia “think yourself a baby”
ophelia autonomy in madeness
“fennels for you… columbines, theres rue for you”
fennel food for serpent
columbines infidelity
rue for sorrow and repentance
Linda Bramber on women
lack of soliloquies” shelter the consciousness of the women characters in tragedies. Nor do they soliloquies”
Richard Davidson
“we share the protagonists vulnerability”
critics quizlet link
https://quizlet.com/gb/661748384/hamlet-critics-flash-cards/
Aristotle
“the plot is then…the soul of the tragedy”
tragedies must purge our emotions at the end pity and terror
Brockbank on Hamlets character
“S only takes a limited interest in Hamlet as an avenger. His deeper interest is in Hamlet the tragic hero”
Matheson on Denmark and religion
“feudal catholic world cannot provide hamlet with a secure identity or an ideological basis for action”
Wilson on Revenge
imposed rather than self willed role
cs lewis
hamlet is a man with his mind on the frontier of two worlds
