Hamlet Critical Quotes and Context

Goethe (Hamlet and Duty)

All duties seem holy to Hamlet

Schofield (Claudius' morality)

He has the persuasiveness and physical courage of a ruler, but is morally empty

Coleridge in 1800 (on Hamlet killing Claudius and Polonius)

Hamlet is obliged to act on the spur of the moment

Dawson (Claudius' love for Gertrude)

He loved Gertrude deeply and genuinely

Sir Herbert Tree (Madness and Humour)

The key comic element of the play is madness

Bloom (Gertrude's promiscuity)

a woman of exuberant sexuality, who inspires luxurious passion first in King Hamlet and later in Claudius

C.S Lewis (Hamlet's fear of death)

Hamlet is haunted, not by a physical fear of dying, but of being dead

Elaine Showalter (Ophelia's deprivations)

Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality and language

Rebecca Smith (Gertrude's interests)

Pleasing men is Gertrude's main interest

Gabriel Josipovici (Hamlet avenging his father)

He is being asked, as a son who (surely) loves his father, to avenge his father's foul and unnatural murder

Diana Bornstein (advice given to women)

Women are often given the same advice that is given to servants... Chasity, piety, obedience

Henry Mackenzie (Hamlet's purposes of Revenge)

With the strongest purposes of revenge, he is irresolute and inactive

J.H Walter (Polonius)

Cold-hearted devil

Gabriel Josipovici (Polonius' moral compass)

A man whose moral compass is infinitely wobbly

Thomas Hamner (Hamlet's actions in Act 3, scene 3)

Unworthy of a hero

Kate Flint (Hamlet's inactivity in Act 3, scene 3)

He himself is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish

Jacqueline Rose (Hamlet's violence towards his mother in Act 3, scene 4)

The violence towards the mother is the effect of the desire for her

Kate Flint (Hamlet's madness)

gives him the licence of a fool to speak cruel truths, transgressing the language of social decorum

William Shakespeare (Revenge, 1601)

Revenge makes men witches

Phillip Sydney on madness (1570)

(the mad are) "miserable things... which are rather to be pitied than scorned"

Kastan (Uncertainty)

“the uncertainty is the point”

Context: Elizabeth's Reign

Had several plots against her life throughout her reign, lacked a successor invasions (Instability of the Danish throne)

Context: Body Politic

The health and state of the country was measured by the monarchs (Claudius' usurpation sickened Dermark)

Context: Espionage

Elizabeth had a spy network headed by Francis Walsingham worked secretly to achieve political aims - anxiety in Elizabethan court.

Context: Machiavellianism

1532 Machiavelli's "The Prince"

Said for a ruler effective truth more important than anything else - means can be immoral if it results in the leader's glory or survival.

Machiavelli suggested medieval chivalry and feudal rule were politically weak.

Context: Garden of Eden

Claudius is symbolic of the serpent (caused the fall of the old paradise of Denmark)

After King Hamlet died Denmark falls to corruption and decay much like Eden after the fall of man.

Context: The Renaissance Man

Renaissance period: rebirth of interest in classical antiquity (Greek and Roman civilisations) including their philosophical ideas

Horatio has a classical name contrasting with the Danish names of R+G and is a true friend to Hamlet.

Hamlet could not be a traditional Saxon avenger without betraying his education.

Context: Elizabethan beliefs of darkness/night

Elizabethans believed the night belonged to the devil, evil spirits and supernatural creatures until the cock crowing at dawn banished them with the light

Context: Elizabethan beliefs on mental health/despair

Despair/suicidal thought seen as an ultimate sin in Elizabethan times linked to the original sin of pride, seen as arrogant to believe Christ couldn't save you

There was a strong belief that devils looked for vulnerable souls and tempted them to damn themselves

Context: Elizabethan beliefs on madness

Superstitious belief mad people were in touch with the spiritual world/ God with insights into truths sane people couldn't see.

Protected and pitied rather than feared and locked up.

Context: Elizabethan beliefs on madness in females

Female madness seen as hysteria rather than melancholy.

Often rejected lovers seen as at higher risk to madness.

Context: Ganser's syndrome

An extremely rare variation of a dissociative disorder and reaction to extreme stress - symptoms include: absurd answers to simple questions, mimicking behaviours of the mentally ill

How does Hamlet transgress the typical revenge tragedy?

First used by scholar Fredson Bowers

The hero's ambition was the feared fatal flaw that causes the downfall of figures (Lucifer, Adam) - the same instinct as to rebel against the laws of God

"Hamlet" shows that revenge is not a black and white concept

Elizabethan fear of the cuckold and promiscuous woman

Idea blamed women (Eve figure) for making men "monsters", which is a reference to the horns of the cuckold.

Elizabethan belief of ghosts

Meant universal displeasure, an indication or a warning that something was not right in the world. Immediate action would restore harmony.

Protestant belief of ghosts

Ghost (evil spirits) were agents of the devil, waiting for any chance to corrupt a mortal soul.

Shakespeare's use of the clowns/fools

Represent the views of the common man

Used for comic relief after a tragic scene (Ophelia's death)

Delivering deeper truths

Thomas Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy

Popular revenge tragedy with key influence on Hamlet, established tropes like exposition (the ghost) and the play within a play.

Renaissance Doubt

A desire for empirical proof over blind faith - seen in Hamlet’s doubt of the ghost.

Humanism

A movement that emphasised human reason, ethics, and the potential of the individual.

Fatalism

Hamlet’s internal struggles align him with the Renaissance shift from medieval fatalism to personal agency.

Theatrical self-awareness

Renaissance drama often played with meta-theatricality. Hamlet does this explicitly through the play within the play and Hamlet’s pretence.

Hamlet as a transitional work

Hamlet lives at the intersection of two eras: the medieval world of ghosts, kings, and divine right, and the Renaissance world of doubt, learning, and personal responsibility. (Links to the doubt about Elizabeth’s succession)

Primogeniture vs elective monarchy

The Danish throne was an elective monarchy meaning the monarch was chosen by a group of nobles.

The English monarchy is a primogenitive structure meaning lineage and gender decided the heir (divine right).

Claudius being chosen instead of Hamlet explores the disruption of the chain of being and Elizabeth’s lack of successor.