Hamlet AO5

Question 1

Middleton (1606)

Answer 1

‘When the bad bleed then is the tragedy good’

Question 2

Bacon (1625)

Answer 2

‘Revenge is a wild kind of justice’

Question 3

Drake (1699)

Answer 3

‘everyone’s crime naturally produces his punishment’

Question 4

Hanmer (1736)

Answer 4

‘Hamlets conduct is cruel.. There is something bloody in it’

Question 5

Johnson (1765)

Answer 5

‘He treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems useless’

Question 6

Coleridge (1813)

Answer 6

‘Hamlets thoughts, and the image of his fancy, are far more vivid than his actual perceptions’

Question 7

Freud (1900)

Answer 7

‘The play is built up on Hamlets hesitations over fulfilling the task of revenge’

Question 8

Wilson (1935)

Answer 8

‘[Hamlet] may even seem a monster of inconsistency’

Question 9

Granville-Barker (1946)

Answer 9

‘Gertrude is a woman who does not mature, who clings to her youth and everything that belongs to it’

Question 10

Dusinberre (1975)

Answer 10

Ophelia has no chance to develop an independent conscience if her own, so stifled by is she by the authority of the male world’

Question 11

Edwards (1979)

Answer 11

‘Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet’

Question 12

Smith (1980)

Answer 12

‘Gertrude is a nurturing and caring maternal presence’

Question 13

Hawkes (1986)

Answer 13

‘The ghost… dominates… even in his absence’

Question 14

Traub (1988)

Answer 14

‘the grave is a site of masculine competition’

Question 15

Adelman (1992)

Answer 15

‘Gertrude’s sexuality in the play is literally the sign of her betrayal and her husbands death’

Question 16

Blake (1806)

Answer 16

Hamlet and his fathers painting - Hamlet looks fearful of his father

Question 17

Dadd (1840)

Answer 17

Hamlet and his mother: Closet scene - Gertrude looks truly fearful of Hamlet

Question 18

Maclise (1842)

Answer 18

The play scene painting- Claudius looks truly guilty - looking away

Question 19

Hawkes (1986)

Answer 19

‘Claudius is no simple villain, but a complex, compelling figure’

Question 20

Millais (1851)

Answer 20

Ophelia- looks peaceful in her death

Question 21

Delacroix (1844)

Answer 21

Ophelia - looks in pain - grabbing on to tree - trying to save herself??

Question 22

Rossetti (1558 and 1866)

Answer 22

Hamlet and Ophelia - both have Ophelia looking away from Hamlet - fearful - doesn’t want anything to do with him??

Question 23

Doran (David Tennant) (2008)

Answer 23

Polonius has no care for Ophelia or Laertes - remains calm when talking about spying- remains calm when ophelia cried

Question 24

Olivier (1948)

Answer 24

Hamlet can’t actually see the ghost - full of smoke

Question 25

Branagh (1996)

Answer 25

Hamlet is aggressive with Ophelia - grabs her