Hamlet Critic Quotes Flashcards

1
Q

Goethe (Hamlet and Duty)

A

All duties seem holy to Hamlet

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2
Q

“Schofield (Claudius’ morality)”

A

“He has the persuasiveness and physical courage of a ruler, but is morally empty”

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3
Q

Coleridge in 1800 (on Hamlet killing Claudius and Polonius)

A

Hamlet is obliged to act on the spur of the moment

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4
Q

Dawson (Claudius’ love for Gertrude)

A

He loved Gertrude deeply and genuinely

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5
Q

Sir Herbert Tree (Madness and Humour)

A

The key comic element of the play is madness

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6
Q

Bloom (Gertrude’s promiscuity)

A

a woman of exuberant sexuality, who inspires uxorious passion first in King Hamlet and later in Claudius

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7
Q

C.S Lewis (Hamlet’s fear of death)

A

Hamlet is haunted, not by a physical fear of dying, but of being dead

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8
Q

Elaine Showalter (Ophelia’s deprivations)

A

Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality and language

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9
Q

Rebecca Smith (Gertrude’s interests)

A

Pleasing men is Gertrude’s main interest

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10
Q

Diana Bornstein (advice given to women)

A

Women are often given the same advice that is given to servants… Chasity, piety, obedience

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11
Q

Henry Mackenzie (Hamlet’s purposes of Revenge)

A

With the strongest purposes of revenge, he is irresolute and inactive

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12
Q

J.H Walter (Polonius)

A

Cold-hearted devil

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13
Q

Gabriel Josipovici (Polonius’ moral compass)

A

A man whose moral compass is infinitely wobbly

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14
Q

Thomas Hamner (Hamlet’s actions in Act 3, scene 3)

A

Unworthy of a hero

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15
Q

Kate Flint (Hamlet’s inactivity in Act 3, scene 3)

A

He himself is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish

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16
Q

Jacqueline Rose (Hamlet’s violence towards his mother in Act 3, scene 4)

A

The violence towards the mother is the effect of the desire for her

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17
Q

Kate Flint (Hamlet’s madness)

A

gives him the licence of a fool to speak cruel truths, transgressing the language of social decorum

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18
Q

Goethe in 1795 (Hamlet as a tragic hero)

A

a poetic and morally sensitive soul crushed by the barbarous task of murder

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19
Q

Susan Synder (Hamlet comedy and tragedy)

A

Comedy can be seen as “the grounds from which tragedy develops”

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20
Q

Elaine Showalter (Ophelia as a character)

A

Ophelia is portrayed as “an insignificant minor character”

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21
Q

Samuel Johnson in 1765 (Hamlet’s inactivity)

A

Hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent

22
Q

Coleridge in early 1800 (Hamlet’s thinking and action)

A

Hamlet is a man incapable of acting because he thinks too much

23
Q

Gabriel Josipovici (Hamlet’s character)

A

Hamlet is a merge of the tragic hero and the clown figure

24
Q

Wilson Knight in 1930 (on Claudius)

A

Claudius is a “good and gentle King”

25
Q

A.C Bradley in 1904 (Hamlet on avenging his father)

A

Hamlet assumes without any questioning that he ought to avenge his father

26
Q

John Dover Wilson in 1935 (the origins of the ghost)

A

we are never perfectly certain as to just who or what the ghost is

27
Q

John Gielgud (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern)

A

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are “just toadies to the king”

28
Q

Lee Edwards (Ophelia)

A

Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet

29
Q

Avi Ehrlich in 1977 (female sexuality)

A

Hamlet is a play about a father and a son who were weak because they were undone… by sexually treacherous women

30
Q

Wilson Knight in 1930 (Hamlet)

A

(Hamlet is) an element of evil in the state of Denmark

31
Q

Amanda Mabillard (Claudius)

A

he is not a monster, he is morally weak

32
Q

Alan Gardnier (Hamlet’s world)

A

The world of Hamlet is a remarkably enclosed one

33
Q

Basil (homosexuality)

A

‘there is nothing to keep me straight’

34
Q

Sybil Vane (purity, virginity)

A

‘little white body’

35
Q

Basil -> DG (influence)

A

‘you talk as if you have no heart’

36
Q

DG (entrapment, fearing reality)

A

‘Dorian Gray locked the door…he felt safe now’

37
Q

Basil (guilt, sinning, religion)

A

‘sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed’

38
Q

LH (exposure, religion)

A

‘I shall show you my soul’

39
Q

Alan -> DG (corruption)

A

‘you have gone from corruption to corruption and culminated in crime’

40
Q

DG -> Duchess of Monmouth (status of women)

A

‘she was very clever, too clever for a woman’

41
Q

DG (appearance vs reality)

A

‘ugliness is the one reality’

42
Q

Narrator -> DG about Sybil Vane (mortality, guilt)

A

‘her death is at you door’ ‘the man who destroyed her life’

43
Q

DG -> Duchess (hedonism)

A

’ I have never searched for happiness…I have searched for pleasure’

44
Q

DG about James Vane’s dead body (youth, appearance, façade)

A

‘the mask of youth had saved him’

45
Q

DG about James Vane’s death (reality, secrecy)

A

‘his eyes were full of tears, for he knew he was safe’

46
Q

LH (mortality)

A

‘death is the only thing that ever terrifies me’

47
Q

DG (repentance, reality)

A

‘I have done too many dreadful things in my life. I am not going to do any more’

48
Q

DG (appearance vs reality)

A

‘then he loathed his own beauty…it was his beauty that had ruined him’

49
Q

DG (appearance vs reality)

A

‘youth had spoiled him’ ‘his beauty had been but a mask, his youth a mockery’

50
Q

DG (reality, art)

A

‘he seized the thing and stabbed the painting with it…it had been conscious. He would destroy it’

51
Q

DG (resolution, realisation, sin, guilt)

A

‘it was the living death of his own soul that had troubled him’