1HAMLET: CRITICISM
Harold Bloom:
- ‘Hamlet is not a revenge tragedy, it has no genre’
- ‘Hamlet is his own Iago’ (Machiavellian character)
- ‘Psychoanalysis is nonsense, Hamlet was being sexist’
- ‘Hamlet is the voice piece of Shakespeare’
- ‘Hamlet’s dictation shifts from sublime to lowly’
- ‘The character of Hamlet gets away from Shakespeare’
- ‘All of Shakespeare is in Hamlet’
- ‘Hamlet is the central Hero of human consciousness’.
A.C. Bradley
- Conventions of a Shakespearean tragedy: e.g. fall from prosperity (reversal
of fortune)
- Gertrude has a ‘soft animal nature’
John Kerrigan:
- Memories prevent Hamlet from undertaking revenge, he wants to
forget the past. He only promises to remember.
- ‘The ghost condemns Hamlet to an endless fruitless yearning for the
lost figure’.
A.D. Nuttall:
- ‘Audiences gain pleasure out of pain in tragedies, therefore we much be
wicked and driven by envy’. Could argue that we find relief in the end of
suffering
William Hazlitt:
- ‘It is we who are Hamlet’ (we don’t act). Could argue it is indecision we
struggle with, not hesitancy like Hamlet.
- ‘He experiences the whole range of emotions’
- ‘He prefers thinking to acting’
- ‘Only acts when he has no time to reflect, shown by his murders of
Rosencrantz, Guildernstern and Polonius.’
- ‘Polonius is not a fool but he makes himself so’
, - ‘Enjoyed discomfort’
Edward P. Vining:
- ‘Hamlet is a woman in disguise’ (e.g. ‘mad for thy love’) would
probably argue that Hamlet is given feminine qualities, debating
leadership.
Anne Barton:
- ‘Hamlet is torn by his contrasting nature and confused identity’
(comedy + wit, intellectual superiority but needs to be worshipped by
many)
Tennenhouse:
- ‘Hamlet and Claudius have equal claims to the throne’ (Claudius is the
brother, husband and more effective than Hamlet)
Shell:
- ‘Claudius is Hamlet’s true father’ (When did G + C’S relationship
start?)
Voltaire:
- ‘Hamlet becomes crazy in the second act’.
Knight:
- ‘Hamlet is an element of evil in the state of Denmark’
- ‘As King of Denmark he would have been a thousand times more
dangerous than Claudius’
- The subject of Hamlet is death
Feminist Critics:
- Woolf suggests language is gendered.
- Lee Edwards: ‘Ophelia has no story without Hamlet’
- Hamlet’s cruel treatment of women is a reflection of his own
insecurities.
- Gertrude is a ‘whore’ (quick remarriage) whereas Ophelia is ‘Madonna’
(pure) in the ‘Maddona-Whore complex.
- Questions over her agency
- Sholtwater: Ophelia is deprived of thought sexuality and language.
‘Drowning was a typically feminine death’
Harold Bloom:
- ‘Hamlet is not a revenge tragedy, it has no genre’
- ‘Hamlet is his own Iago’ (Machiavellian character)
- ‘Psychoanalysis is nonsense, Hamlet was being sexist’
- ‘Hamlet is the voice piece of Shakespeare’
- ‘Hamlet’s dictation shifts from sublime to lowly’
- ‘The character of Hamlet gets away from Shakespeare’
- ‘All of Shakespeare is in Hamlet’
- ‘Hamlet is the central Hero of human consciousness’.
A.C. Bradley
- Conventions of a Shakespearean tragedy: e.g. fall from prosperity (reversal
of fortune)
- Gertrude has a ‘soft animal nature’
John Kerrigan:
- Memories prevent Hamlet from undertaking revenge, he wants to
forget the past. He only promises to remember.
- ‘The ghost condemns Hamlet to an endless fruitless yearning for the
lost figure’.
A.D. Nuttall:
- ‘Audiences gain pleasure out of pain in tragedies, therefore we much be
wicked and driven by envy’. Could argue that we find relief in the end of
suffering
William Hazlitt:
- ‘It is we who are Hamlet’ (we don’t act). Could argue it is indecision we
struggle with, not hesitancy like Hamlet.
- ‘He experiences the whole range of emotions’
- ‘He prefers thinking to acting’
- ‘Only acts when he has no time to reflect, shown by his murders of
Rosencrantz, Guildernstern and Polonius.’
- ‘Polonius is not a fool but he makes himself so’
, - ‘Enjoyed discomfort’
Edward P. Vining:
- ‘Hamlet is a woman in disguise’ (e.g. ‘mad for thy love’) would
probably argue that Hamlet is given feminine qualities, debating
leadership.
Anne Barton:
- ‘Hamlet is torn by his contrasting nature and confused identity’
(comedy + wit, intellectual superiority but needs to be worshipped by
many)
Tennenhouse:
- ‘Hamlet and Claudius have equal claims to the throne’ (Claudius is the
brother, husband and more effective than Hamlet)
Shell:
- ‘Claudius is Hamlet’s true father’ (When did G + C’S relationship
start?)
Voltaire:
- ‘Hamlet becomes crazy in the second act’.
Knight:
- ‘Hamlet is an element of evil in the state of Denmark’
- ‘As King of Denmark he would have been a thousand times more
dangerous than Claudius’
- The subject of Hamlet is death
Feminist Critics:
- Woolf suggests language is gendered.
- Lee Edwards: ‘Ophelia has no story without Hamlet’
- Hamlet’s cruel treatment of women is a reflection of his own
insecurities.
- Gertrude is a ‘whore’ (quick remarriage) whereas Ophelia is ‘Madonna’
(pure) in the ‘Maddona-Whore complex.
- Questions over her agency
- Sholtwater: Ophelia is deprived of thought sexuality and language.
‘Drowning was a typically feminine death’
