A.C Bradley – why does Hamlet delay the murder | It is a direct result of his melancholic emotions |
A.C Bradley – why doesn’t Hamlet understand his own actions | “Hamlet is disgusted by life and everything” – thus his traditional crazy emotions he does not understand |
What does A.C Bradley believe is wrong with Hamlet? | Believes he has bi-polar disorder. Claims he gets “absorbed in the feeling or mood that possessed him” |
What does critic Hermann Ulrici discuss? | Hamlet’s doubts on the morality of revenge |
Hermann Ulrich – what does he believe about Hamlet committing murder? | Even though the King committed fratricide, in a Christian sense, it would be a sin to kill him with one’s own hand without trial and without justice |
What does Ulrici believe about the ghost? | It cannot be a moral, pure and heavily entity if it wanders the earth to stimulate revenge |
What does Ulrici comment on in terms of Hamlet’s internal conflict of his murder? | He struggles to make the task imposed on him one that he can undertake freely as a moral action. His regard for the eternal salvation of his soul forces him to stop and consider his actions |
Hermann Ulrich – what does Hamlet do wrong? | Tries to act as a spiritual power himself by trying to avenge the death of his father – overestimate of human power |
Samuel Coleridge – what does he believe about Hamlet’s vengeance? | Suffers from a mere incapability to act |
Coleridge – what does he think is Shakespeare’s aim? | 1. Wishes to impress on the audience that “action is the chief end of existence” |
What is Coleridge’s explanation for Hamlet’s inaction? X2 | 1. Thinks he is too adverse to action because all his energy is given to self-reproach2. Hamlet’s mental version of events were far more real to him than the realistic and external events, developing in him a “passion for the indefinite” |
Coleridge – what impact does Hamlet have on the audience? | “it is we who are Hamlet” – suggests people identify with the aspect of Hamlet that focuses primarily on his mind |
How does Coleridge explain Hamlet’s delay? | Doubt as to the value of his actions themselves |
Swinburne – what is the explanation for Hamlet’s delay? | He has a strong desire to prove an argument right, but he struggles to overcome dangers |
What does critic Samuel Johnson believe about Hamlet’s character? | He is an instrument through the whole play, as opposed to an agent |
What does Von Goethe believe about Hamlet? | All duties seem Holy to him. Things that have been required of Hamlet are impossible, not in themselves, but impossible for Hamlet |
What does critic Wilson Knight believe about Claudius? | He is a good and gentle King, enmeshed the the chain of causality linking him with his crime. |
What does W. Knight believe about Hamlet? | He is an element of evil in the state of Denmark; Claudius’ chain of causality may have been broken if it wasn’t for him. |
How does Wilson Knight justify his actions against Claudius? | Believes that Claudius could not have let Hamlet become King because his erratic behaviour would have been detrimental to Denmark |
What does Wilson K. believe Hamlet represents? | Believes he is a figure of nihilism and is in fact the poison in the veins of the community |
What does critic Alexander say about the questions of the play? | It doesn’t offer any response to the questions it poses about human aggression |
What does Nigel Alexander think about Hamlet’s delay? | The proof of Claudius’ guilt does not solve Hamlet’s problem, the question is how to deal with such a man without becoming like him |
Catherine Belsey – justice | “revenge is in excess of justice” |
What does Belsey believe about justice? | That it is on a margin between crime and justice. It is also a political issues in Hamlet |
What does critic Alexander believe about why other characters in the play don’t hesitate to act? | They are sure of their own values and beliefs. E.g Fortinbras and Laertes act because they believe that certain acts are right or honourable |
What does critic Marylin French believe about Rosencrantz and Guildernstern? | They sacrifice the bond of human friendship to a social properity |
Rebecca Smith – Claudius and Gertrude | Although he loves her, Gertrude is viewed as an object by Claudius and is possessed as an effect of her actions |
What does R. Smith notice about Gertrude’s death? | Even her dying words are not accusatory towards Claudius but merely warning Hamlet of the poison |
Critic Showalter of Ophelia: | It is Hamlet’s disgust at the feminine passivity in himself that is translated into violent revulsion against women, such as his behaviour towards Ophelia |
What does critic Brucher believe about justice in the play? | Characters often compromise their own moral impulses for the sake of justice. A diabolically ingenious killing may go against our morals, but appeal to our fantasies about power, control and poetic justice in a corrupt world |
Hamlet literary critics
August 23, 2019