Critical readings Flashcards
1
Q
Ideas of Aristotelian Tragedy (Aristotle)
A
- Change of fortune good to bad (peripeteia), suffering that creates sympathy (pathos), emotional release (catharsis), realisation of the cause of this misery (anagnorsis)
- Hero morally good, excessive pride (hubris), make a tragic mistake (hamartia)
2
Q
Aristotelian Tragedy in Hamlet
A
- Many characteristics present from the opening spectacle of the ghost, to the final cathartic scene
3
Q
Ideas of Marxism (Karl Marx)
A
- Society is capitalist as its based on making profit
- Proletariat (WC) make money for the bourgeoisie (UC) who control means of production
-These two social classes are in conflict which will lead to social unrest until it culminates in social revolution
4
Q
Marxism in Hamlet
A
- Division between aristocracy, bourgeoisie and proletariat
- Hamlet mocks Polonius and Osric, Claudius orders R+G
- This is overthrown by Laertes at the end
- Polonius assigns Ophelia value as an object (or pawn) and treats her as a commodity in order to profit and prosper socially
- Aristocracy goes to immoral levels to fulfil their own needs
- Claudius corrupts himself and society
5
Q
Ideas of Jungism (Carl Jung)
A
- All people share a ‘collective consciousness’
- Part of this is symbolic character types or archetypes
- As we aren’t directly aware of them, these archetypes can only be deduced indirectly by examining human behaviour, images, art, myths, religions or dreams
6
Q
Jungism in Hamlet
A
- The flowers Ophelia hands out in A4S5 as representative of other character’s psyches
- All characters in Hamlet (possibly except Fortinbras and Horatio) as being shadow archetypes
- Unaware of the dark aspects of their personality
- Horatio and Fortinbras as representative of the ‘self archetype): they have balance and morality
7
Q
Ideas of feminism (Simone de Beauvoir)
A
- Gender is different from ones biological sex and is a social construction
- Society expects each gender to behave in a distinct way
- Women are oppressed as they are only valued for their looks and as wives and mothers
- Women are the ‘second sex’ as they are seen as less powerful and important to men
- Society is patriarchal
8
Q
Feminism in Hamlet
A
- Ophelia is a sympathetic and engaging pawn of powerful men
- Her madness can be linked to the abandonment of these men
- Shakespeare seems to reinforce dominant contemporary ideologies on gender
9
Q
Ideas of psychoanalytical theory (Sigmund Freud)
A
- Human psyche has 3 parts: The id (from birth, satisfy every urge), The ego (Decision making, works by reason and strategy), The superego (reflects values and morals from society)
- Oedipus complex, all boys want to sleep with their mothers, and thus resent the parent of the same sex
10
Q
Psychoanalytical theory in Hamlet
A
- Hamlet’s desire to sleep with his mother comes from his id
- Recognises his own id in Claudius, who fulfilled his own childhood desires
- Ghost in Hamlet’s superego, controls his desires in A3S4
11
Q
Ideas of Nietzschean (Nietzsche)
A
- Life is without objective meaning, purpose, or value
- There is no God (Nihilism)
- In the absence of God, superhumans (the ubermensch) are willing to risk all to improve society and take God’s place
12
Q
Nietzschean in Hamlet
A
- Hamlet can’t kill Claudius because he knows that his action will change nothing in the eternal nature of things
- Hamlet has no sense of illusion so couldn’t act
13
Q
Ideas of deconstructive theory (Jacques Derrida)
A
- Language is a system of signs, words only have meaning because of the contrast between these signs
- Within these binary opposites there is hierarchy with one being seen as more important
- A deconstructive reading of a text will try to expose the way these oppositions work and undermine the binary notion of the meaning
14
Q
Deconstructive theory in Hamlet
A
- When Hamlet tries to justify Gertrude’s crime in A3S4, he does so by presenting his father and Claudius as binary opposites
15
Q
Ideas of John Locke theory (John Locke)
A
- Locke argued strongly against the idea that people were born sinful or that some were innately evil
- He suggested human beings are born with an ‘empty mind’ (tabula rasa) which is then shaped by our experiences
- The way children are brought up has a powerful impact on the adults they become
