critics

Question 1

Von Goethe

Answer 1

‘All duties seem holy to Hamlet’

Question 2

Mabillard

Answer 2

‘Claudius is not a monster, he is morally weak’

Question 3

Arnold

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Charney

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Prosser

Answer 5

‘Laertes is like a hurricane’

Question 6

Aristotle

Answer 6

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

Question 7

T.S. Eliot

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Knight

Answer 8

‘Claudius shows every sign of being an excellent diplomat and king’

Question 9

Showalter

Answer 9

‘Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality and language’

Question 10

Rogers

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Mack (1)

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Hazlitt

Answer 12

‘Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action’

Question 13

Bradley (1)

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Bradley (2)

Answer 14

‘Hamlet is a tragedy of thought.’

Question 15

Swinbourne

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Edwards

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Muir

Answer 17

‘Gertrude is a moral defective’

Question 18

Wilson

Answer 18

‘The ghost is the linchpin of Hamlet’

Question 19

Mack (2)

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Frye

Answer 20

‘Hamlet is a tragedy without catharsis’

Question 21

Mcgrory

Answer 21

Women are either innocent maiden saints or loathsome sinners, and the deciding factor is nearly almost sex.’

Question 22

Showalter quoting swinbourne

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Smith

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Adelman (1)

Answer 24

Despite his ostensible agenda of revenge, the main psychological task that Hamlet seems to set himself is not to avenge his father’s death but to remake his mother

Question 25

Adelman (2)

Answer 25

Throughout the play, the covert drama of reformation vies for priority with the overt drama of revenge

Question 26

Kastan

Answer 26

The absence of clear answers to questions is central to Shakespearean tragedy

Question 27

Coleridge (1)

Answer 27

Ophelia’s… natural carelessness of innocence

Question 28

Coleridge (2)

Answer 28

The strange and forced manner of Ophelia, …..was not acting a part of her own, but was a decoy

Question 29

Coleridge (3)

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Calderwood

Answer 30

‘Hamlet senses that he too has become part of a larger process: the plot of Providence as scripted by the divine Playwright’

Question 31

O'Toole

Answer 31

Hamlet is a great problem for the tragic hero theme because he is patently not a hero

Question 32

Kerrigan

Answer 32

Ophelia is a lesser we have never really known

Question 33

Newell

Answer 33

Hamlet is entirely motivated by reason and untouched by passion

Question 34

Johnson

Answer 34

Hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent

Question 35

Knight (2)

Answer 35

Hamlet is infact the poison in the veins of the community