Hamlet - critical quotes

Reynolds

each abandons a sedentary position to assume an active one'

Bacon

'revenge is a wild kind of injustice'

Greenblatt

Shakespeare 'drew upon the confusion, dread and pity of death in a world of deadened rituals'

McEvoy - preference for Claudius

'A strong ruler like Claudius might well preferable to a weak or indecisive one'

McEvoy - duality of Claudius

displays a measured rationality…be read as tragic; an alternative hero'

Gardiner - linguistic imprisonment

'Denmark is a prison even in language'

Gardiner - Osric

'Osric…a comic example of servitude which helps Claudius'

Gurr

'Claudius is a legitimate ruler…what is rotten about his kingship is his lack of inner goodness'

A.C Bradely

'Hamlet is a tragedy of thought…downfall is in connection with his reflective habit'

Vardy - polonius

'At the heart of the corrupt and oppressive state'

Vardy - power of madness

Hamlet 'is able to escape censure by pretending to be mad in a state characterised by dishonesty and surveillance'

Vardy - reduction of the family

'Power and politics evidently trumps family values in Claudius's Denmark'

Imrie

'madness [was]…seen as a symptomatic of divine, or diabolic possession'

Burton 1621 - grief

'Grief made people 'cry out, howle & roare for very anguish of their souls'

Burton 1621 - madness

'madmen lack hypocrisy and speak the truth'

Jones 1949

'generating conflict between his conscious social wishes and unconscious antisocial ones'

J.H.Plumb - machiavelli

'There is no reality but power and power is the reward of ruthlessness, ferocity and cunning'

J.H.Plumb - polonius

‘A cold, hearted devil at the centre of the corrupted and oppresive state’

Kitto

'such a man should be killed is in a large sense right'

Wood - doubles

‘entangled in a series of similarities'

Wood - the mousetrap

'emphasises the queen's fickleness ad the poisoner's treachery in rhymed dialogue'

Watson - revenge

‘Revenge tends to overflow, inflicting collateral damage on bystanders’

Watson - Hamlet as a tragedy

‘Tragic because it divides the protagonist against himself, casting him in incompatible roles’

Watson - Hamlet’s danger

‘Unappreciated by the court, he decides to show the world his abilities in destructive modes instead’

Worral

‘To die not in a state of grace involved an inevitable condemnation to hell’

Sidall

'as a rebel and an idealist, he…disconcerts the orthodox'

Flint - power of comedy

‘Comedy is described as a standard cure both for melancholy and for the melancholic's inability’

Flint - danger of Hamlet

‘Hamlet's disorder can be spoken of as something threatening the well'-being of the state’

Flint - power of madness

‘Madness gives the license to speak cruel truths, transgressing the language of social decorum’

Forker - theatrical nature of Denmark

‘The court of Denmark is a stage…take parts, play rites and practice to deceive’

Forker - symbolism of performance

‘Playing is the stock metaphor for hypocrisy’

Forker - the clowns

‘The joking of the clowns gives a tragicomic emphasis to the contrast between the hypocrisies of life and the realities of death’

Daalder

The Mousetrap offers material for reflection on the real world of the play

Alexander

‘Ophelia chooses not to be, Laertes chooses to be’

Showalter - duality of felinity

‘Discordant double images of female sexuality as both innocent blossoming and whorish contamination’

Showalter - Ophelia’s death

‘Ophelia drowns in feeling’

Showalter - Ophelia’s purpose

‘Ophelia's role is one of deprivation of thought’

Lopez

‘An element of erotomania in Ophelia's madness’

Sutcliffe

‘Osric is a parasite who survives on pickings off the dying body of Claudius' court’

McRae

‘Tragedy…of fathers and sons’

Lennard

‘Almost a parody of a revenge tragedy’

Noely

‘Gertrude dies as a result of her love for men’

Bevington

‘Claudius is able to manipulate…the ones he claims to love’

Thompson and Taylor

‘When revenge is seen as right, Hamlet's hesitation becomes inadequate’

Mackenzie

‘With the strongest purposes of revenge he is irresolute and inactive’

Tree

‘The key comic element of the play is madness’

Foucault

‘The fool in early modern drama is the truthteller’

Grindlay

‘Ophelia is virtually immured in the domestic sphere’