Hamlet Critics

Question 1

Dr Liam McNamara’s critique of the appearance of the ghost:

  “Dramatically, the ghost acts as a kind of 

  catalyst leading to an exploration of the 

central characters legitimacy of a revenge”

Answer 1

Here he is suggesting the ghost leads to spiralling of madness within the characters.

Although Hamlet initially plans to fake madness, the paranoia behind his uncles crime leads him to actually descend into it.

Question 2

Samuel Johnson: (Hamlet)

Answer 2

“Hamlet is…rather an instrument than an agent”

Question 3

Coleridge: (Hamlet)

Answer 3

“Hamlet is obliged to act on the spur of the moment”

Question 4

T.S. Eliot (Hamlet)

Answer 4

“Hamlet is most cеrtainly an artistic failurе”

Question 5

David Leverenz (Ophelia)

Answer 5

“[Ophelia is] a microcosm of the male world’s banishment of the female”

Question 6

Elaine Showalter: (Ophelia)

Answer 6

“Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality, and language… she represents the strong emotions that the Elizabethans as well as the Freudians thought womanish.”

Question 7

Carol Thomas Neely (Ophelia)

Answer 7

“Ophelia’s madness is perhaps the most powerful mode of protest available to her.”

Question 8

Stephen Greenblatt: (Ghost)

Answer 8

“The ghost is a figure through which the play brings into question the religious and political uncertainties of the time.”

Question 9

Dr Liam McNamara: (Ghost)

Answer 9

“Dramatically, the ghost as a kind of catalyst leading to an exploration of the central characters legitimacy of a revenge”