CRITICS

AC Bradley - Death

Hamlet most brings to us a sense of the soul’s infinity

Kenneth Branagh - Comedy

The Comedic moments in Hamlet provide opportunities for physical humour and slapstick, show casing the versatility of Shakespeare’s writing

Campbell - Madness

Hamlet is emotional unstable, not insane

K.Cartwright - Death

We become Hamlet’s memory as he had been the ghost

Peter Davison - Comedy

There is an attempt to puzzle out the meaning of life and death, in his humour

Lee Edwards - Sex

We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet

William Hazlitt - Complexity

Dallies with his purpose till the occasion is lost … relapse into indolence

Holleran - power

Corruption of the court forecasts disater

Samuel Johnson - Madness

Whilst Ophelia’s Madness creates tenderness and sympathy, Hamlet’s leads to mirth

Kastan 1 - Tragedy

Uncertainty is the point

Kastan 2 - tragedy

Tragedy, for Shakespeare, is the genera of uncompensated suffering

John Kerrigan 1 - remembrance

Through the loss of Ophelia, Hamlet feels that of his father

John Kerrigan 2 - Remembrance

The ghost condemns Hamlet to an endless, fruitful yearning for a lost figure

Jan Kott - Supernatural

The Supernatural in Hamlet mirrors the chapters pscyholical states blurring the lines between reality and illusion

Terry Miller - Love

For Gertrude, passionate love is a binding, reckless emotion that leads her to do foolish things. This drags down her whole family and kingdom

Rubenfeld

Claudius is a mirror of hamlet himself

Elaine Showalter 2 - Femininity

Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality and language

Rebecca Smith - Femininity

Pleasing men is Gertrude’s main interest

Rebecca Smith - love

Polonius seems to love his children, he seems to have the welfare of the kingdom in mind. His means of action, however, are totally corrupt

O’toole - death

Hamlet is a play about death. Or rather is is a play about the survival of the individual in the face of death

G.Wilson Knight - Power

Claudius is a “good and gentle king”

Gillian Woods - Deception

The play is “obsessed with acting and deception”

Janet Adelman - Vengeance

Hamlet seems motivated more by his mother than by his father

Janet Adelman - Family

The closest screen carries sexual tension, with Hamlet repeatedly mentioning his mothers infidelity when speaking of his father

AC Bradley - Polonius

Polonius represents the epitome of courtly hypocrisy

AC Bradley - Laertes

Laertes’ desire for revenge stems from a sense of honour and familia loyalty, driving him to extremes in his quest to avenge his father’s death

AC Bradley - Revenge

Hamlet is unable to carry out the scared duty, imposed by divine authority, of punishing an evil man by death

Besley - Revenge

Revenge exits on a margin between justice and crime

George Dawson - Revenge

Hamlet is the only protagonist in any Elizabeth revenge play who can be considered a hero, aware of the moral implications involved in exacting his revenge

William Hazlitt (2) - complexity

The whole play is an exact transcript of what might have taken place at court of Denmark

Beltramini - Family

Dysfunction families are essentially the cause of Hamlet’s tragic nature

R.D Attlick - power

The cunning and lecherousness of Claudius evil has corrupted the whole of Denmark

Rebecca Smith - Sex

Female virtue is indelicate with chastity , thus Polonius trained his daughter to be obedient and chaste … is able to use her as a piece of bait for spying

Howard - Sex

Hamlet believes his mother is a Trollop due to her sudden marriage to Claudius, he loses faith in all women, treating Ophelia like a Trollop as well

Gillian Woods (2) - Deception

Hamlet - both the character and the play in which he appears - is deeply concerned with performance

AC Bradley - Comedy

The comedic scene provide moment of relief and irony amidst the darkness of the play’s central tragedy

Elaine Showalter - Madness

For Hamlet madness is metaphysical, linked with culture, For Opehlia it is a product of the female body and female nature

AC Bradley - love

Hamlet’s love was not only mingled with bitterness, it was also weakened and deadened by his melancholy

O’Connor - Supernatural

King Hamlet serves as a symbol for the religious ambivalence present in England

Harold Bloom - supernatural

Hamlet is a renaissance man, his attitude towards the supernatural is that of a renaissance man, wary but receptive, sceptical but credulous

Harry Levin - Masculinity

Hamlet’s delay can be seen as a crisis of masculinity, as he grapples with the expectations of avenging his father’s murder while also confronting his own doubts and insecurities

Harold Bloom - masculinity

Hamlet embodies a complex vision of masculinity torn between the Renaissance ideal of honour and revenge and a more introspective and emotional sensibility

Coppelia Kahn - masculinity

Hamlet’s treatment of Ophelia and Gertrude reflect his struggle with his own masculinity, as he grapples with teh expectations of patriarchal society

Coleridge - action vs inaction

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

Harold Bloom - Action vs Inaction

Hamlet’s inaction is not merely procrastination but a profound existential crisis, reflecting the human condition itself, torn between the desire for action and fear of consequences

AC Bradley - Action vs Inaction

Hamlet’s delay is not due to cowardice or indecision but to his profound moral and philosophical contemplation of the consequences of his action

Harold Bloom - Laertes

Laertes serves as a mirror to Hamlet, embodying the qualities of action and impulsiveness that Hamlet lacks

His character highlights the consequences of unchecked revenge

Garber - Laertes

Laertes’ protective instincts toward his sister Ophelia's raved a familial bond that contrast with Hamlet’s complex feeling for her

Janet Adleman - Gertrude

Gertrude’s character embodies the anxieties surrounding maternal authority and it’s potential to suffocate and control

AC Bradley - Claudius

Claudius is not merely a stock villain but a nuanced chapter gripping with guilt and ambition

Harold Bloom - Polonius

His pompous speeches and penchant for eavesdropping underscores his role as a foil to Hamlet

Kiernan Ryan - revenge

Shakespeare intent on sabotaging the conventions of revenge tragedy

D.G James - Horatio

Hamlet speaks of Horatio in words of passionate admiration… clearly he would like to be Horatio

Gail Paster - Horatio

Horatio is a stoic character, who Hamlet praised as new stoic