HAMLET%20Critics%20and%20key%20vocab

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HAMLET Critics and key vocab

• http//people.brandeis.edu/teuber/earlycrit.html

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Swinburne

• The single characteristic of Hamlets innermost
  nature is by no means irresolution or hesitation
  or any form of weakness, but rather the strong
  conflux of contending forces
• Paraphrased A characteristic of Hamlets
  innermost nature is not irresolution or
  hesitation, but a desire to prove an argument
  right and the struggle to overcome dangers.

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Samuel Johnson

• Hamlet is, through the whole play, rather an
  instrument than an agent.
• he makes no attempt to punish Claudius, and his
  death is at last effected by an incident which
  Hamlet has no part in producing

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Von Goethe

• Impossibilities have been required of Hamlet not
  in themselves impossibilities, but such for him.
• All duties seem Holy for Hamlet

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Bradley

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

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Coleridge

• Paraphrase Shakespeare seems to have wished to
  exemplify the moral necessity of balance between
  our senses and our minds. In Hamlet, this balance
  seems disturbed his thoughts and imagination are
  far more vivid than his actual perceptions.
• Hamlet is obliged to act on the spur of the
  moment

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Wilson Knight

• Claudius, as he appears in the play, is not a
  criminal.  He  isstrange  as  it  may  seema
   good  and  gentle  king, enmeshed by the chain
  of causality linking him with his crime. And this
  chain he might, perhaps, have broken except for
  Hamlet, and all would have been well. 
•  Hamlet is an element of evil in the state of
  Denmark

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Wilson Knight

• Claudius can hardly be blamed for his later
  actions. They are forced on him. As King, he
  could scarcely be expected to do otherwise.
  Hamlet is a danger to the state, even apart from
   his  knowledge  of  Claudius  guilt.  He  is  
  inhuman () he is feared by those around him.
  They are always trying in vain to  ?nd out what
  is wrong with him. They cannot understand him. He
  is a creature of another world. As King of
  Denmark he would have been a thousand times more
  dangerous than Claudius.

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Wilson Knight

• Hamlet is a figure of nihilism (The rejection of
  all religious and moral principles, often in the
  belief that life is meaningless) and death.
• He is in fact the poison in the veins of the
  community.
• The question of relative morality of Hamlet and
  Claudius reflects the ultimate problem of the
  play

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Alexander

• The play does not offer any conclusions about
  what is the right repsonse to the questions it
  poses about human aggression, not because it is
  confused but because Hamlet is aware that more
  than one single set of answers exists.
• The proof of the Kings guilt does not solve
  Hamlets problem. The question remains, how does
  one deal with such a man, without becoming like
  him?

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Belsey

• Revenge is not justice. It is rather an act of
  injustice on behalf of justice
• Revenge is always in excess of justice
• Claudius is still in possession of the crown and
  Gertrude and is planning the death of Hamlet ()
  in these circumstances revenge is a political as
  well as a moral issue
• Revenge exists on a margin between justice and
  crime

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Alexander

• The desire for vengeance is seen as part of a
  continuing pattern of human conduct.
• The audience are entertained because they are
  being asked to see, feel and understand a little
  more about the hidden springs of action which are
  supposed to drive the characters.

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Alexander

• The feeling of failure and frustration, which
  Hamlet himself recognizes, is created by this
  rapid alternation between the language of blood
  revenge and the language of conscience.
• The other characters in the play do not hesitate
  to act because they are sure of their own values
  and beliefs. Fortinbras and Laertes act because
  they believe that certain actions are right or
  honourable.

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Marilyn French

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sacrifice the bond
  of human friendship to a social propriety

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Rebecca Smith

• Although he clearly loves her- Claudius shares
  the Hamlets conception of Gertrude as an object.
  She is possessed as one of the effects of his
  actions.
• Gertrude uses her dying words to warn Hamlet of
  the poison, but doesnt accuse Claudius.
• Gertrude has not moved in the play toward
  independence only her divided loyalties and her
  unhappiness intensify.

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Rebecca Smith

• 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.
• Female virtue is identical with chastity thus
  Polonius () trained his daughter to be obedient
  and chaste and is able to use her a a piece of
  bait for spying.

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Showalter

• Ophelia is deprived of thought, sexuality and
  language.
• She represents the strong emotions that the
  Elizabethans as well as the Freudians thought
  womanish and unmanly.
• Hamlets disguist at the feminine passivity in
  himself is translated into violent revulsion
  against women and into his brutal behaviour
  towards Ophelia

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Brucher

• Revengers create their own civil justice, often
  in ways that imitate or even mock divine justice
  and that compromise their own moral impulses.
• The problem is that while a diabolically
  ingenious killing may offend our moral
  responsibilities, it may also appeal to our
  fantasies about power, control and poetic justice
  in a corrupt world

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Unknown

• There is the simple, inescapable fact that the
  attempt to rid Denmark of its villain-king has
  left the country in a worse state than it was at
  the outset.
• Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are a pair of
  faceless automatons (imitating human beings) and
  serve as an element of comedy in the tragedy.
  When the King thanks Rosencrantz and gentle
  Guildenstern the Queen thanks Guildenstern and
  gentle Rosencrantz. They are so alike that they
  are almost indistinguishable.

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Evans (The Revengers Tragedy)

• Lust becomes a metaphor for wider social
  sicknesses
• Misogyny of Lussurioso and Junior Brother as well
  as their cynicism towards women reflect their own
  corruption. Vindices cynicism is born out of a
  disappointed idealism.
• Despite his misogyny, Vindice still believes that
  his mother and sister are somewhat different and
  atypical from the rest. The audience are not
  likely to share Lussuriosos cynicism because to
  a large extent, the audience shares Vindices
  idealism about Castiza and Gratiana.

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Evans (The Revengers Tragedy)

• The scene where Vindice tests his mother and
  sister and the plays focus on women functions
  with dramaturgical as well as thematic
  effectiveness, in this case helping to create an
  effect of real suspense.
• Vindice tempts his mother and sister not out of
  misogyny, but precisely to protect them from
  viciousness. If they fall, he will be there to
  catch them.

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Evans (The Revengers Tragedy)

• Gratianas salvation means more than the
  redemption of Vindices mother. Gratianas
  transformation symbolizes the possibility of at
  least individual regeneration in the dark world
  presented by the play.
• The opportunity for Gratiana to test her newly
  recovered virtue arrives too conveniently and so
  neither Gratiana nor the audience is likely to
  believe that Castiza has changed so abruptly and
  drastically.
• However, this shows that Castiza is not entirely
  incapable of corruption.

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Evans (The Revengers Tragedy)

• Vindice does not seem despaired by his death, his
  final words are not tragic. They have undertones
  of light-hearted vigour. This may seem
  surprising, but after all he has achieved his
  revenge in a manner as cruel as he could have
  imagined. If his mother stayed a bawd and sister
  had become corrupt, his death would have been
  utterly different-utterly darker than it is.

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Key vocabulary to use

• Social disorder is reflected in the play
• Seneca is the creator of the genre
• Antithesis is the opposite of something
• Ubiquitous refers to an idea or a feeling which
  is present everywhere, e.g. corruption
• Jacobean establishes when the play was set
• Patriarchal refers to a male dominated society

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Key vocabulary to use

• Soliloquy/soliloquies refer to Hamlets
  monologues which are directed at the audience
• Middleton uses asides for a similar effect
• Retribution means the same as revenge
• Malcontent refers to a person disillusioned with
  the society
• Hubris describes excessive pride and over
  confidence

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Key vocabulary to use

• Hamartia is another term for fatal flaw
• Anagnorisis refers to the moment in the play when
  a character makes a critical discovery
• Stichomythia is when dialogue is used as
  alternating lines (as seen in the closet scene)
• Plethora refers to an excess of something
• Inexorable describes something which is
  impossible to stop.
• Circumlocutious is a word for unnecessarily wordy
  speech
• Louche can be used to describe something or
  someone of of questionable taste or morality
• Quixotic refers to something exceedingly
  idealistic
• Convoluted means extremely complex
• To ruminate is to think of something deeply