hamlet the man

Anger to Gertrude

‘Nor customary suits of solemn black’ not grieving

Calls her ‘madam’ however says he will ‘obey’ - respect and close

‘Within a month’

‘Incestuous sheets’- omarriage to one's husbands brother is one of the many liaisons forbidden in the Book of Common prayer ' A table of kindred and affinity'

‘My fathers brother’

‘Wicked tounge’

‘Your husbands brothers wife’

Calls Claudius ‘Hyperion to a satyr’ - sun god, Apollo, vs satyr, sex

'... almost as bad, good mother,/ As kill a king, and marry his brother'- couplet uses rhyme to draw attention to the accusation. The blunt nature of the language suggest Hamlet is not hedging his words or hiding under manipulative language. In this moment Hamlet quickly moves on from killing Polonius. It emphasizes how obsessed he is with Gertrude's sin.

First soliloquy is more abt Gertrude than fathers death

Ghost says to ignore Gertrude, he doesn’t

Continues hurting her even though she says his ‘words like daggers enter in my ears’

Antic dis

After seeing ghost first time ‘put an antic dis on’

Gertrude cannot see ghost, she is blind to truth or he is mad however Horatio can

‘It is not madness that i have uttered’

'Though this be madness, yet there is/ method in't'- Polonius to Hamlet in an aside. Polonius rightly guesses that Hamlet's seeming madness is carefully crafted for purpose. There is a suspicion that Hamlet is not truly mad. The alliterative phrase makes this memorable because we are seeking logic in the illogical

Madness

‘To be or not to be’

‘Sea of troubles’

Madness ‘plucks off my beard’ takes away his masculity, makes fun of him, cover for truth

‘Hamlet’s lunacy’ - Polonius to Claudius. This shows how all are noticing Hamlet's peculiar conduct. The blunt 'lunacy' - Polonius makes clear the subject of H's mental state has been the discussion of the court. The language in which Polonius, Claudius and Gertrude describe Hamlet's behavior suggests that even before the explosive nunnery scene, Hamlet's behavior is interpreted as something more than clever jesting or depression. These terms may also function as stage directions telling the actor how 'wildly' he should present Hamlet.

Mysoginy

‘Get thee to a nunnery’

‘Breeder of sinners’

‘I loved you once’ ‘no more marriage’

‘Frailty, thy name is woman’ Falls in the first Hamlet soliloquy in which he talks of suicide and his feelings toward Claudius and Gertrude
- Personification of an abstract noun , frailty is held equal to woman

Cruel after emotional moments w women

Madness

‘To be or not to be’

‘Sea of troubles’

Madness ‘plucks off my beard’ takes away his masculity, makes fun of him, cover for truth

‘Hamlet’s lunacy’ - Polonius to Claudius. This shows how all are noticing Hamlet's peculiar conduct. The blunt 'lunacy' - Polonius makes clear the subject of H's mental state has been the discussion of the court. The language in which Polonius, Claudius and Gertrude describe Hamlet's behavior suggests that even before the explosive nunnery scene, Hamlet's behavior is interpreted as something more than clever jesting or depression. These terms may also function as stage directions telling the actor how 'wildly' he should present Hamlet.

Freud- Oedipus complex

‘Do not go to my uncles bed’

‘Reechy kisses’

Childhood experiences wants affection that he never prev got, father as rivalry

Inaction / action

‘Is it the king’

'the play's the thing/ Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.'- Hamlet Soliloquy. This rhyming couplet sends the audience to the next act with a forward motion because Hamlet appears to have regained his momentum. He has made a decision in the summation couplet

Grief

'But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue'- In Hamlet's first soliloquy. We see Hamlet's genuine grief in this phrase and feel sympathy for him - he wants to try and contain his disapproval. there is also a tone of futility because he is going to stay silent as what good would speaking up/criticizing do - this is ironic for the audience because they know about the ghost who wants Hamlet to speak up.

Revenge

'Revenge his foul and most natural murder'- The ghost to Hamlet. This request spurs the central plot as the ghost's demand for revenge confuse the revenge plot. His ambiguity provides Hamlet with the many doubts that delay his revenge. The ghost's demand for vengeance is sinful in Christian terms

Incest critic

'Hamlet depicts a bond between Gertrude and her son which can often be rather uncomfortable to watch in performance given the undertones of their incestuous desire.' Lydia onettle

Hamlet corruption

He intitially condemns corruption but by the end he is as corrupt as Claudius- polonious, Ophelia

Corruption quote

‘Unweeded garden’ is Claudius bad king or is this a reflection of hamlets grief

He says to Gertrude ‘do not spread the compost on the weeds to make them ranker’ - not even abt Claudius or body politic of state of Denmark, personal

Paranoia point

Never sees Claudius commit a crime, based of a ghost that Gertrude cannot even see, a performance and his reaction- truth is unstable

Claudius vs h

C is more descisive and emotionally honest- guilt

Hamlet passive critics

‘Hamlet is, through the whole piece, rather an instrument than an agent’ (Samuel Johnson 1765)

‘Man who cannot make up his mind’ (William Hazlitt)

Antic dis critics

‘His madness is feigned…but his grief is real’ Johnson

Psychological critic of h

‘It is we who are Hamlet’ William Hazlitt, Coleridge saw a ‘smack of hamlet’ in himself- romanticisms can relate, soliloquies, not 2d character

‘He is the first figure whose interior life seems to matter more than his actions’ Stephen Greenblatt

Oedipus complex critics

‘He cannot punish Claudius because he indentifies w him’ (Freud)

Hamlet is presented as Machiavellian
Hamlet and Claudius are aesthetically similar (platinum blonde hair)
Political and military focus (uniforms and fencing)
Ghost seems to be in purgatory (ground opens up, storm - supernatural themes)
Hamlet is shut out of society and plots against Claudius

Freud says Claudius has fulfilled ‘the repressed wishes’ of hamlets childhood

Tennant film version- Gertrude in silk gown, hamlet pushes her on bed and grabs by neck- ownership, very close to her and on top of her, also in zezeffirelli- mocks her by being on her bed

Cartmell says Zeffirelli’s films are appealing bc they are ‘sensual rather than cerebral’

Gertrude is quite younge

"The long repressed desire to take his fathers place in his mothers affection is stimulated" - Ernest Jones 1949.

Oedipus complex - theory that Hamlet loves his mother still in a sexual way. He wants to kill Claudius but to marry his mother more than claiming revenge as deep down he would do the same thing Claudius by killing Old Hamlet , so by killing Claudius he is is emulating his repressed desire to be with his mother and that is the conflict he has with himself

Antic dis critics

‘He is always acting, even when alone’ Marjorie garber

Henry levin 1900s- psychoanalytical ‘a means of expressing pent up emotions’ ‘figure of comedy’

Edwin booth 1800s romantic- ‘a victim of the mental illness he claimed to be suffering’

Branagh- 3.1 w Ophelia- aware of Claudius and polonios, room full of mirrors- antic dis controlled

Royal Shakespeare company- hamlet alone showing grief

Hamlet internal conflict critic

Hamlets mind is at war with himself" - Nigel Alexander (1971)

During Hamlets soliloquy Branagh holds a knife to his head while repeating the iconic line "To be or not to be" showing Hamlets conflict within his mind controls him

Hamlet mysoginy critic

"Hamlet's disgust at the feminine passivity in himself is translated into violent repulsion against women and his brutal behaviour towards Ophelia" Leverenz

"madness is a product of the female body and female nature" Showalter

"Women are imagined as either angels or whores" Traub

Mel Gibson- mistreatment to Ophelia

1660 criticism to hamlet- sympathy

‘Heroic avenger vivacious and energetic’

Charles ii avenged his murdered father, both Thomas betteron and David Garrick cut his delay and cut cruel bits of his character

Criticism of his cruelty

Temptation to kill Claudius when praying was criticised by Thomas hammer- ‘so inhumane, so unworthy of a hero’