Critical interpretations

Question 1

What did Juan Luis Vives (1524) say about lovers?

Answer 1

‘Do not desert your parents to follow after lovers.’

Question 2

What did Bacon say about counsel?

Answer 2

‘The greatest trust, between man and man, is the trust of giving counsel.’
-1597

Question 3

What did Bacon say about justice?

Answer 3

‘Revenge is a kind of wild justice.’
-1625

Question 4

What did Buchanan say about vengeance?

Answer 4

‘People would be in the right if they sought vengeance on an arrogant and worthless tyrant.’
-1579

Question 5

What did Drake say about poetic justice?

Answer 5

‘Here was a murder privately committed, strangely discovered, and wonderfully punished… admirable distribution of poetic justice’
-1699

Question 6

What did Harner say about heroism?

Answer 6

‘Hamlet’s conduct [is] cruel… there is something very bloody in it, so inhuman, so unworthy of a hero.’

Question 7

What does Johnson say about Hamlet’s treatment of Ophelia?

Answer 7

‘The pretended madness of Hamlet causes much mirth… [but] he treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems useless and wanton cruelty.’
-1765

Question 8

What does Johnson say about Hamlet being an agent?

Answer 8

‘Hamlet is… rather an instrument than an agent.’
-1765

Question 9

What does Goethe say about Hamlet’s philosophising?

Answer 9

‘Hamlet represents the type of man whose power of direct action is paralysed by an excessive development of intellect.’\
-1795

Question 10

What does Coleridge say about Hamlet’s perception?

Answer 10

‘[Hamlet’s] thoughts, and the images of his fancy, are far more vivid than his actual perceptions… [he] is constantly occupied with the world within, and abstracted from the world without.’
-1813

Question 11

What does Hazlitt say about deliberate action?

Answer 11

‘[Hamlet] seems incapable of deliberate action, and is only hurried into extremities on the spur of the occasion, when he has no time to reflect.’
-1817

Question 12

What does Hazlitt say about Hamlet’s revenge?

Answer 12

‘[Hamlet] is the prince of philosophical speculators…because he cannot have his revenge perfect’
-1817

Question 13

What does Edgar Allan Poe say about women’s death?

Answer 13

‘the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetic topic in the world.’
-1846

Question 14

What does Nietzsche say about archetypes?

Answer 14

‘Hamlet resemble[s] the archetype of the violent and visionary ‘Dionysiac’ man… no action of theirs can work any change in the eternal condition of things.’
-1872

Question 15

What does Snider say about Polonius’ death?

Answer 15

‘Polonius deserved to die for his offences but Hamlet had no right to slay him.’
-1877

Question 16

What does Freud say about hesitation?

Answer 16

‘The play is built up on Hamlet’s hesitations over fulfilling the task of revenge that is assigned to him’
-1900

Question 17

What does Freud say about punishment?

Answer 17

‘[Hamlet] is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish.’
-1900

Question 18

What does Bradley say about melancholia?

Answer 18

‘Melancholia [is] at the root of Hamlet’s problems.’
-1904

Question 19

What did Bradley say about doom?

Answer 19

‘[Hamlet’s] genius might even become his doom.’
-1904

Question 20

What does Bradley say about religion?

Answer 20

‘Nothing stands between Hamlet and suicide except religious awe.’
-1904

Question 21

What does T.S Elliot say about language?

Answer 21

‘The levity of Hamlet, his repetition of phrase, his puns, are not part of a deliberate plan or dissimulation, but a form of emotional relief.’
-1919

Question 22

What does Lawrence say about soliloquies?

Answer 22

‘The soliloquies of Hamlet are as deep as the soul of man can go.’
-1921

Question 23

What does Granville-Barker say about Gertrude?

Answer 23

“Gertrude [is a] woman who does not mature, who clings to her youth and all that belongs to it’
-1946

Question 24

What does Dustinberre say about Ophelia’s conscience?

Answer 24

‘Ophelia has no chance to develop an independent conscience of her own, so stifled is she by the authority of the male world.’
-1975

Question 25

What does Edwards say about Ophelia's story?

Answer 25

‘We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet.’ -1979

Question 26

What does Smith say about Gertrude's presence?

Answer 26

‘[Gertrude is] a nurturing and caring maternal presence rather than a shallow sensualist.’ -1980

Question 27

What does Dollimore say about Hamlet's role?

Answer 27

'agent and victim of social corruption' -1984

Question 28

What does Hawkes say about the ghost?

Answer 28

‘The ghost… dominates… even in his absence.’ -1986

Question 29

What does Hawkes say about Claudius?

Answer 29

‘[Claudius is] no simple villain, but a complex, compelling figure.’ -1986

Question 30

What does Traub say about male power?

Answer 30

‘Male power is restored through… the vilification of women.’ -1988

Question 31

What does Traub say about Women?

Answer 31

‘Gertrude’s adultery turns all women into prostitutes...Women make men into monsters' -1988

Question 32

What does Traub say about sexuality?

Answer 32

‘Hamlet describes sexuality… with metaphors of contagion and disease.’ -1988

Question 33

What does Traub say about Ophelia's dead body?

Answer 33

‘Ophelia’s dead, virginial body is fetishized by Hamlet and Laertes alike… the grave [is] a site of masculine competition' -1988

Question 34

What does Neely say about what Ophelia's death represents?

Answer 34

‘Gertrude narrates Ophelia’s death as beautiful, natural, and eroticized, foreshadowing later representations of it' -1991

Question 35

What does Neely say about Madness?

Answer 35

'...Ophelia becomes alienated, acting out the madness Hamlet only plays at.’ -1991

Question 36

What does Kerrigan say about reminders?

Answer 36

‘[Hamlet is] surrounded by people and places which remorselessly remind him of the dead king.’ -1996

Question 37

What does Greenblatt say about the ghost?

Answer 37

'The ghost… initiates a nightmare.’ -2002

Question 38

What does Ingram say about Ophelia's figure?

Answer 38

'The Ophelia figure was a kind of feminine ideal: totally passive, sexualised, and utterly defined by her romantic relationships.’ -2005

Question 39

What does McEvoy say about Gertrude and Ophelia?

Answer 39

'...two archetypes of women in early modern drama: the virgin and the whore.’ -2006

Question 40

What did Hytner say about the monarchy and state?

Answer 40

‘The play was written about a surveillance state: a totalitarian monarchy with a highly developed spy network..' -2010

Question 41

What does Foley say about the ending of Hamlet?

Answer 41

[The ending of Hamlet is] ‘moral chaos’ & ‘meaningless disorder.’ -2012

Question 42

What does Gauci say about soliloquies?

Answer 42

'Soliloquies are a calculated performance that the character stages deliberately and rhetorically' -2015

Question 43

What does Vardy say about Polonius' character?

Answer 43

‘[Polonius] is nothing more than a stock character, frequently wrong in his judgements, providing a source of comic relief.’ -2017

Question 44

What does Tennant say about the initial introduction of Hamlet?

Answer 44

'When we first meet Hamlet, it is clear that he is grief stricken'

Question 45

What does Tennant say about the Graveyard scene?

Answer 45

'The play depends on the familiarity of the graveyard'

Question 46

What does Greenblatt say about the ghosts role?

Answer 46

'The ghost becomes the engine of the play' -2012

Question 47

What does Greenblatt say about the genre of the play?

Answer 47

'A revenge play.. is a play.. in which Hamlet is a dead man from Act 1' -2012

Question 48

What does Tennant say about Hamlet's morality?

Answer 48

'Straight- jacketed by his own morality' -2012

Question 49

What does Tennant say about the end of Hamlet's life?

Answer 49

'The silence was a sense of relieif to Hamlet' -2012

Question 50

What did Jude Law say about the entire play?

Answer 50

'All of our fears are in this play' (existence, morality and afterdeath) -2012