Hamlet Critics

Hazlitt 18th cent

Hamlet is Paralysed by his thoughts

Goethe 18th cent

Hamlet is ‘without the strength which forms a hero’

Schlegel 19th cent

'He is too much overwhelmed with his own sorrow to have compassion for others’

Elrich 20th cent

‘Hamlets problems are caused by a lack of a strong father figure’

Wilson 20th cent

Hamlet is not a heroic victim but a sinister presence in Denmark

Bradley 20th cent

Hamlet’s cheif desire is to save Gertrude’s soul

Scott 21st cent

Hamlet loves every single character including Claudius

Dover-Wilson 20th cent

the ghost is ‘the lynchpin of the play’

Rebecca West 20th cent (feminist) on G

‘the whole play depends of Gertrude not noticing and not understanding’

Hamana 20th cent

Ophelia ‘suffers a series of patriachal oppressions’

Edwards 20th cent

Ophelia has no story without Hamlet

Rebecca Smith 20th cent (feminist) about Claudius’s treatment of Gertrude

He shares Hamlet’s conception of Gertrude as an object

Jamieson 21st Cent

Hamlet appeared to drive her to her death

McEvoy 20th cent

A strong monarch like claudius might well be preferable to a weak but virtuous one

Rebecca Smith 20th cent (feminst) about P treatment of O

'Trained his daughter to be obedient and chaste to use her as a piece of bait for spying

Woods about madness

His own sincere demonstration of sadness is compromised because it would be too easy to feign

Woods about revenge

The revenger ends up becomming like the criminal he seeks to punish

Rebecca West 20th cent on O

‘No line in the play suggests that she felt passion or affection for Hamlet

Schücking 20th cent

Greif at her father’s sudden and unexplained death has unbalanced her mind

Camden 20th cent about cause of O’s death

It is more the “pangs of despized love” which caused her tragic fate than the death of polonius

Camden 20th cent about P impact of O

Polonius ‘gave no thought to the effect’ that telling O ‘she caused Hamlet to run mad’ will have on her

Vanston

Links the idea of the panopticon prison to Denmark - few watching the many yet with the irony that the play is reminiscent of a synopticon prison due to the audience present

Vanston on surveillance

The play demonstrates the futility of surveillance

The ever present surveillance that haunts its characters provides no answers, saves no lives

Pennington 20th cent

Polonius is made palatable by the fact that he is funny

Bloom 21st cent

Yorrick was Hamlet’s true mother and father

Prosser 20th cent

Laertes is not a whiff of fresh air. He is a Hurricane

Gillies

Horatio acts as a barometer of truth for the audience

Bradley 20th cent about H’s nihilism

Hamlet is disgusted by life and everything in it

Weiss

Horatio is ‘the only character in Denmark not honey combed with pitfalls’

Purcell and Somers

They are more fools than they are knaves , but Shakespeare knows that folly is often more harmful than knavery

French

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sacrifice the bond of human friendships for social propriety 

Wiggins

The ghost may be a demon tempting Hamlet to murder an innocent man

1980 Royal Court Production

No ghost - lines spoken by Hamlet’s actor who changes his voice for the ghosts lines

London Old Vic Theatre 1977

‘To be or not to be’ speech spoken directly to Ophelia

Peter Brook’s version 2000

‘To be or not to be’ moved to Act IV - Brook feeling that H’s nadir should come later in the play to justify his actions

Edward Keen 1814

Actor who started the tradition of the ‘Keen Crawl’ during the Mousetrap, crawling over to Claudius to observe him. Keen crawl remained common practice until 1920s

Kozinstev 1964

Russian Director felt H’s outburst to R and G was poignant in post-totalitarian gov world - the government can control its people physically but not their thoughts or psyche, just as R+G (and C) tried to control Hamlet but where unsuccessful in uncovering his true nature

Almereyda 2000

Set in NYC focus on CCTV and devises → paranoia

Focus on reflections - windows, sunglasses, Hamlet slicked back hair

Associations with O and water - O staring into fountain of Hotel Elsinore

Olivier and Dover Wilson

In both adaptations, they bring H in earlier in Act II Scene II to overhear C + P scheming feeling that this justifies his actions later

Olivier 1937 staged production

First known stage production to portray H as Oedipal - since then, scene of H in G’s chamber is always in her bedroom

Olivier film 1948, Olivier Old Vic staged version 1963

Gertrude drinks poison knowingly

Kosinstev 1964, Olivier film 1948

Scene between H and the ghost set on a cliff by the sea. This is just after Horatio warned H that the ghost may metaphorically “tempt” Hamlet to “the dreadful summit of the cliff”

Elizabethan portrayal of Ophelia

Erotomania is her cause of madness

Often dressed in white - symbolising virginity (contrast later productions sexualising her e.g Doran, Branagh)

Branagh 1996, portrayal of Fortinbras

‘Chillingly Calm’ - foil to Hamlet

Large focus on the national war vs the domestic war

17th - 19th cent productions regarding Fortinbras vs 20th cent productions

17th-19th cent - Fortinbras often omitted (seen as irrelevant)

20th cent - F rarely removed providing parallels with modern society and emphasising themes of power and ambition.

Brannagh portrayal of Ophelia + Hamlet

Explicit link between O+H sexual relation → O madness due to Hamlet’s betrayal - depicted through flashbacks to sex scenes during O’s mad scene were she’s writhing on the floor in a straight jacket