Romantic critical interpretations

Question 1

When was the romantic period?

Answer 1

late 18th early 19th century

Question 2

were critics more or less sympathetic with Hamlet in this period?

Answer 2

More Sympathetic

Question 3

Coleridge on identities in Hamlet

Answer 3

Hamlet suffered with an “overbalance of the imaginative power”

Question 4

Coleridge on Hamlets mind

Answer 4

Hamlets mind was “disturbed” by a lack of “balance” between the “real and imaginary worlds”. his own brain overpowers him

Question 5

Hazlitt on Hamlet

Answer 5

Hazlitt defines Hamlet as “The prince of philosophical speculators”

Question 6

for Hazlitt, Hamlet is “compelled to indulge his

Answer 6

imagination, rather than act”.

Question 7

Wilhelm Von Schlegel on Hamlet’s thoughts

Answer 7

Hamlet loses himself in “labyrinths of thought without end or beginning”. His thoughts cripple him from action.

Question 8

Percy Shelley on Hamlet in thought

Answer 8

“his profound meditations seem without beginning or end, as he wanders in a wilderness of thought”.

Question 9

Lamb on Hamlet as a revenge hero

Answer 9

Hamlet was uncomfortable within his role as a revenge hero as a shy character.

Question 10

Hazlitt on Hamlet being played on stage

Answer 10

“Hamlet himself seems hardly capable of being acted” - due to the psychology of the role.

Question 11

Which two Romantic poets co-authored Lyrical Ballads in 1798?

Answer 11

Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Wordsworth