Family + relationships

Question 1

What does critic Vardy say about family values in Elsinore

Answer 1

“Power and politics clearly trump family values”

Question 2

How can polonius’s family be seen as the foil of hamlets family in the beginning of the play + AO5 interpretations

Answer 2

• close fatherly relationship emphasises the disfunctionality of hamlets family > “my blessing with thee”
• polonium keys Laertes go to France but Claudius doesn’t let hamlet go back to Wittenberg > “remain here in the cheer comfort of our eye”
  Branagh: Laertes + Ophelia walk in arm in arm
  Icke: playful physical affection + closeness

Question 3

How are polonius and Ophelia’s relationship in act 1 scene 3 presented through dramatic AO5 interpretations

Answer 3

Branagh: father asserts physical dominance by pushing Ophelia into a confession box
Icke: polonius interrupts her and hamlet dancing, polonius’s tone quickly changes as he shouts at her m, regrets it after > presents polonius as a potentially comedic character with dementia

Question 4

How does hamlet criticise his mother in 3,2 before the mousetrap play

Answer 4

G: “come hitter my dear” > H: ”No… here’s metal more attractive” (overly flirty + playful with Ophelia while making a dig at his mum)
- “for look how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father dies within these two hours”

Question 5

What is freudians reading if hamlet in act 3 scne 4 and which film interpretation supports this

Answer 5

• Zeffirelli
• hamlet harbours an unconscious desire to sexually enjoy his mother > Oedipus complex says all boys unconsciously desire their mother and are help us if their father > hamlet feels resent and anger due to this built up frustration and his unconscious desires intertwine with anger in this scene

Question 6

How does hamlet use sensory language to “speak daggers” in 3,4

Answer 6

“Your husband like a mildewed ear” > motif of rotting / decay, ear = symbolic of corruption
“Have you eyes?” > condescending, stupid “That sense is apoplexed” “eyes without feeling,feeling without sight” > criticising her desire and her appetite for lust (“frailty thy name is woman”)

Question 7

How does hamlet seek to shame Gertrude in 3,4

Answer 7

Motif of concealment and hidden truths through semantic field of make up : “Such an act that blurs the grace and blush of modesty”
“O shame, where is thy blush”

Question 8

Finish the 3,4 quote from hamlet: “rank sweat of an unsealed bed/ stewed in corruption, …

Answer 8

honeying, and making love / over the nasty sty”
- extreme disgust for his mother and Claudius by vividly describing the moral decay of their relationship due to the perceived corruption of their union
- semantic field of uncleanliness symbolic of corruption and decease - prominent themes and motifs in the play