Hamlet Critics

Question 1

All duties seem holy to Hamlet

Answer 1

Von Goethe

Question 2

Claudius is not a monster, he is morally weak

Answer 2

Mallibard

Question 3

Claudius’ soliloquy gives the impression of rhetorical pageantry rather than sincere contrition

Answer 3

Arnold

Question 4

Through madness, Ophelia suddenly makes a forceful assertion of her being

Answer 4

Charney

Question 5

Laertes is like a hurricane. He rushes into the palace in an uncontrolled rage, roaring for blood

Answer 5

Prosser

Question 6

The aim of tragedy is to arouse sensations of pity and fear

Answer 6

Aristotle

Question 7

The opening scene of Hamlet is as well constructed as that of any play ever written

Answer 7

T.S. Eliot

Question 8

Claudius shows every sign of being an excellent diplomat and king

Answer 8

Knight

Question 9

Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality and language

Answer 9

Showalter

Question 10

In Shakespeare’s society, the ideal female is cherished for her youth, beauty and purity

Answer 10

Rogers

Question 11

Hamlet can be privileged in madness to say things about the corruption of human nature

Answer 11

Mack

Question 12

Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action

Answer 12

Hazlitt

Question 13

Hamlet’s delay is due to… a form of melancholy

Answer 13

Bradley

Question 14

The single characteristic of Hamlet’s character is by no means hesitation but the strong conflux of contending forces

Answer 14

Swinbourne

Question 15

Hamlet is a tragedy of thought

Answer 15

Bradley

Question 16

We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet

Answer 16

Edwards

Question 17

Gertrude is a moral defective

Answer 17

Muir

Question 18

The ghost is the linchpin of Hamlet

Answer 18

Wilson

Question 19

In the final act, Hamlet accepts his world and we discover a different man

Answer 19

Mack

Question 20

Hamlet is a tragedy without catharsis

Answer 20

Frye

Question 21

Women are either innocent maiden saints or loathsome sinners

Answer 21

Mcgrory

Question 22

Polonius seems to love his children… his means of action however are totally corrupt

Answer 22

Smith

Question 23

Natural carelessness of innocence (about Ophelia’s short and general answer to the long speech of Laertes)

Answer 23

Coleridge

Question 24

Hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent

Answer 24

Johnson

Question 25

Hamlet is motivated by reason

Answer 25

Newell

Question 26

Hamlet’s disgust at the feminine passivity in himself is translated into violent revulsion against women

Answer 26

Lavarenz

Question 27

The soliloquy of Ophelia, which follows, is the perfection of love - so exquisitely unselfish

Answer 27

Coleridge

Question 28

Hamlet’s madness is associated with intellectual and imaginative genius, but Ophelia’s affection is erotomania or love-madness

Answer 28

Showalter

Question 29

Ophelia is a ‘lesser we have never really known’

Answer 29

Kerrigan

Question 30

Hamlet poses great problems for the tragic hero theory because he is patently not a hero

Answer 30

O’Toole

Question 31

(Ophelia exhibits) strange and forced behaviour

Answer 31

Coleridge

Question 32

Hamlet senses that he too has become part of a larger process… scripted by the divine playwright

Answer 32

Calderwood

Question 33

the ghost is more than a narrative device

Answer 33

Greenblatt

Question 34

Shakespearian tragedy is the genre of uncompensated suffering

Answer 34

Kastan

Question 35

Hamlet has a penchant for playacting

Answer 35

Rosenburg