Appearance v reality Flashcards
(13 cards)
Traditional Elizabethan View
Early critics may have linked the theme to the importance of honesty and truthfulness in Elizabethan society, where outward appearance could often deceive.
Postmodern Interpretations
Postmodern critics might focus on how Hamlet reflects the fragility of truth in an unstable world, where nothing can be trusted — a view consistent with relativistic theories of truth.
Psychological/Modern
Critics influenced by Freudian psychology may interpret the theme in terms of repressed desires, identity conflicts, and the subconscious, arguing that characters like Hamlet have distorted perceptions of their true selves.
‘The devil is the source of all ghostly apparitions to delude the living’
Daemonologie in forme of a dialogue - King James vi of Scotland - 1597
Eugene delacroix- 1835
painting of hamlet and corpse of Polonius - Hamlet lifting the curtain revealing Polonius, Hamlet is smiling.
painting of hamlet and ophelia - Hamlet is kissing Ophelia’s hand, she’s looking away, looking sad/disgusted/ not interested.
Donte gabriel - 1866
‘The depiction of Ophelia is Lewd (Crude and offensive in a sexual way) and unreasonable’
Jeremy Collier - 1698
Thomas Hanmer - 1736
‘ Hamlet conduct is cruel… so unworthy of a hero’
‘ The play is built up on Hamlet’s hesitations’
Sigmund Freud - 1900
Valerie Traub - 1988
‘Male power is restored through… the vilification of women’
‘ The Ophelia figure was a kind of feminine ideal: totally passive, sexualised, and utterly defined by her romantic relationships’
Allan Ingram - 2005
‘ Ophelia and Gertrude can superficially be seen as representatives of the two archetypes of women in early modern drama’
Sean Mcevoy - 2006
1999 production
after ophelias madness is revealed - act 4 scene 5 handing out flowers - she is never mentioned - they never fight on her grave.
