hamlet critic quotes

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We need history to explain our individuality

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Catherine Belsey on individuality

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Shakespeare constructs Gertrude through the eyes of Hamlet, who sees her new relationship as one of lust, not strategy

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Clare Gunns on gertrude

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65 Terms

1
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We need history to explain our individuality

Catherine Belsey on individuality

2
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Shakespeare constructs Gertrude through the eyes of Hamlet, who sees her new relationship as one of lust, not strategy

Clare Gunns on gertrude

3
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the presence of Polonius indicates Claudius’ own mistrust of Gerturde

Clare Gunns on claudius and gertrude

4
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The idea of human existence is relevant forever

A.R Whybrow

5
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unbridled imagination shows ways of breaking through unbearable social restraints

Maurice Chaney

6
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the character’s madness disguises their true meaning

mack on madness

7
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Hamlet doesn’t seek revenge, he only wants to remember his father

Kerngan

8
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hamlet struggles to kill Claudius because he identifies with him too muc

ernest jones

9
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while Ophelia is objectified she is still central though this is only because she is eternally linked with hamlet- which is in itself further objectification

Lacan

10
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Hamlet is the mona lisa of literature

t.s eliot

11
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the play is a continuing pattern of revenge and death

alexander (18th century)

12
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death or a sinister ideal

Von Goethe on the ghost

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malign

proser on the ghost

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from the beginning, Hamlet is obsessed with suicide

paul carter

15
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hamlet is a play about death. or rather it is a play about the survival of the individual in the face of death, death is the picture, not the frame

fintan o’toole

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polonius trained his daughter to be obedient and chaste and is able to use her as a piece of bait for spying

rebecca smith

17
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revenge is wild justice

francis bacon

18
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hamlet is more of a thinker than a doer

coleridge

19
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instincts are towards undoing rather than doing

emma smith

20
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all duties seem holy for hamlet

von goethe on hamlet

21
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hamlet is a prince who finds himself an outcast in his own land

billington

22
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his whole mind is poisoned

a.c bradley

23
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hamlet’s failure to act is seen as femenine

catherine belsey on hamlet’s action

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modern audiences are suspicious of the use of violence and do not care for paternal loyalty

catherine belsey on the audience

25
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hamlet has morality without action, the king has action without morality

d.j snider

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we can imagine hamlet’s story without ophelia but ophelia literally has no story without hamlet

lee edwards

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claudius is merely a product of the barbaric era

wilson knight on claudius

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hamlet is rather an instrument than an agent

samuel johnson

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hamlet’s hesitation is right, the concept of blood revenge was the only thing

r.n watson

30
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hamlet alternates between lethargy and rage

gail kern pastor

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the nature of a tragedy is uncompensated suffering

david scott kastan

32
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piece of bait named ophelia

lacan

33
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indescribable charm

henry mackenzie (1780)

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hamlet is a figure of nihilism and death and has been poisoned by death

wilson knight on hamlet

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excellent diplomatist and king

wilson knight on claudius as a leader

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revenge…is an act of injustice on behalf of justice

catherine belsey on revenge and injustice

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revenge is always in excess of justice

catherine belsey on revenge

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soft, obedient, dependent, unimaginative women who is caught miserably

a.c bradley on ophelia

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romanticised symbol of fragility and madness

John Everrett Millais painting 1851

40
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protested against picture of ‘insipid little creature’

1914 anonymous actress

41
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in giving away her wild flowers…is symbolically deflowering herself

bridget lyons

42
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analytical knight

joe sutcliffe

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claudius is intelligent and well spoken…manipulative and dangerous

nicholas bonnet

44
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primarily a bitterly eloquent and princely avenger

john jump (early critic)

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truly suffering from a mental breakdown

henry levin

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women…two and only two choices: virgin and whore

kay stanton

47
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to possess her body is to possess the state

leonard tennenhouse

48
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many 19th and 20th century critics have neglected the political dimension of the play in favour of a personal one

thompson and taylor on critics

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feigned madness is a politically motivated in earlier iterations of the story

thompson and taylor on madness

50
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hamlets own misogyny remains an issue

thompson and taylor on hamlet

51
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part woman

Von Goethe on hamlet’s femininity

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ophelia complex - women, water and death

gaston bachelard

53
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critics and readers of hamlet have readily accepted hamlet’s view of Gertrude without question

carolyn heilbrun

54
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rosencrantz and guildenstern sacrifice the bond of human friendship

john french

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by examining horatio’s relationship with hamlet, we learn a lot about hamlet’s character

henry guilles

56
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hatred overwhelms any other emotion, it is impossible to display love

amelia woodford

57
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love is ever present it just needs one characters commitment

anne holland

58
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the personal is political

carol hanish

59
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unquiet walks of devil

thomas brown

60
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illusions of the mind unhinged by melancholy or devils masquerading as spirits to lure the person they address to damnation

campbell and quinn

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the ghost is the supreme reality, representative of the hidden ultimate power

maynard mack on ghost

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trivial and unspiritual and vulgar

d.h lawrence

63
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buffoonish statesman

thomas cranmer 1736

64
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questioned hamlet’s admirable qualities, feminist, focused on the treatment of poor ophelia

anna jameson 1800

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hamlet is characterised by failure

hegel 19th c.