Hamlet AO5 Flashcards

1
Q

Voltaire (1748)

A

“[Hamlet] is a vulgar and barbarous drama”
(Vulgertaire)
- Morality and corruption

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2
Q

Johnson (1765)

A

(John-strument):

“Hamlet is… rather an instrument than an agent”
- Victim of circumstances and the actions of other people
- He does not take control of his own fate
- Action vs Inaction, Morality and Revenge

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3
Q

Vining (1881)

A

“The charms of Hamlet’s mind are essentially feminine in nature”
- Tries to explain his inaction through gender stereotypes
- Role of Women, Action vs Inaction and Madness

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4
Q

Wilson Knight (1930)

A

(Wilson CCCCCnight / Wilson 5 C’s Knight):

“Claudius… is not a criminal. He is… a good and gentle king, enmeshed by the chain of causality linking with his crime”
- Claims Claudius is not the villain which he is often said to be
- Corruption, Morality and Appearance vs Reality

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5
Q

Clemen (1951)

A

(Clemen):

“Hamlet sees through men and things. He perceives what is false”
- Hamlet cannot be fooled and is a wise and honest man
- Appearance vs Reality

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6
Q

Mack (1952)

A

(Mackarras):

“Polonius is always either behind an arras or prying into one”
- Polonius spends his time spying or deceiving people he wants to manipulate
- Appearance vs Reality, Morality and Corruption

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7
Q

Gardner (1959)

A

(Gardark and devious):

“The dark and devious world in which Hamlet finds himself… involves all who enter it in guilt”
- Claudius’ effects –> he has infected Denmark so that immoral and corrupt behaviour is commonplace
- Morality, Corruption, Revenge and Disease

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8
Q

Rebecca Smith (1980)

A

(Rebopposites Smith):

“Gertrude is caught miserably at the centre of a desperate struggle between two mighty opposites”
- Struggles to find a balance between a Mother and a Wife
- Role of Women

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9
Q

Showalter (1985)

A

(Showalter=ODTSL):

“Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality, language”
- She is a plot device - has no control over the events that affect her
- Role of Women, Appearance vs Reality, Relationships and Sexuality

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10
Q

Emma Smith (2019)

A

(Emmidentity Smith):

“Hamlet bears the name of a dead man. His very identity is caught up in the past”
- Due to his name, he is destined to be trapped in the past and is constantly looking backwards instead of forwards
- Madness, Revenge and Disease

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11
Q

Von Goethe

A

(Von Goly duties)

“All duties seem holy for Hamlet”

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12
Q

Coleridge

A

(Cobliged)

“Hamlet is obliged to act on the spur of the moment”
- Impulsivity

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13
Q

Benedict Cumberbatch

A

“the youth seem to suffer at the hands of the generation above them”
- Cumberbatch on his own production

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14
Q

Besley - Morals

A

(Besleymargin)

“Revenge exists on a margin between justice and crime”

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15
Q

(Rythought)

A

“[he kills Claudius] suddenly, without forethought”

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16
Q

Emma Smith

A

(Smith’s soliloquies FRC)
“Hamlet’s soliloquies have come to represent the ultimate articulation of a fraught, reflective consciousness”

17
Q

Claire McEachern

A

(Mcinnerchern)

“his lack of purpose and inner strength… is degrading for a king’s son”

18
Q

Ophelia painting

A

John Everet Millais
- Poppies represent death
- Willow tree represents forsaken love
- Nettles represent pain
- Daisies represent innocence

19
Q

Will Tosh (2016)

A

(Toshraction)

Shakespeare believed “that excessive or unrequited love could lead to mental distraction.”
- “Ophelia later appears on stage as a model of what early modern people understood to be a ‘distracted’ woman pushed into insanity by love, her seemingly meaningless chatter suggestive of disturbing sexual obsession.”

20
Q

Crawford

A

(Crawfundamental sanity)

“It is this exuberant humour that reveals beyond doubt Hamlet’s fundamental sanity”

21
Q

Blackmore - madness

A
  • Blackmore argues that Shakespeare uses too many attributes of a madman to make Hamlet’s madness believable
  • Feigned –> Never loses control of language, discloses plan to fake madness to Horatio, treatment of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
  • Only temporarily insane when he kills Polonius and mourns Ophelia
22
Q

Elliot

A

Elliotness
“Less than madness, more than feigned” (T.S. Elliot)

23
Q

Ryobligation

A

“Hamlet’s obligation to avenge his father seems all but forgotten” (Ryan, 2016)

24
Q

ComplusRyan

A

“The main cause of the whole tragic train of events is Hamlet’s compulsion to postpone” (Ryan, 2016)

25
Q

Smith fraught

A

“The relationship between speech and action is so famously fraught” (Emma Smith)

26
Q

Smith forward

A

“Claudius looks forward, Hamlet looks backward” (Emma Smith)

27
Q

Freud

A

Oedipus complex
- Claudius did what Hamlet wants, kill King Hamlet and sleep with Gertrude.
Killing Claudius = Killing Himself
Revenge = Suicide –> Hamlet’s confusion and delaying of revenge

28
Q

Smith preoccupied

A

“Hamlet is preoccupied with the past” (Emma Smith)

29
Q

Voltaire & T.S. Elliot

A

Both believe ‘Hamlet’ is poorly written and Shakespeare didn’t write characters well enough –> behaviour makes no sense

30
Q

Blackmopposing

A

“Two opposing schools” (Blackmore)
- Feigned vs Unfeigned madness

31
Q

Lee Edwards story

A

“We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet” (Lee Edwards, 1979)
- Feminist critic