hamlet critical opinions

• 17th century critical opinion


  immediate success in london
• rymer - lost its social purpose as a mixed mode tragedy, confusing the audience
• garrick - 18th century cut gravedigger scene based on critical pressure
• johnson - shakespeares plays are compositions of a distinct kind
• jameson - ophelia is a kind of ‘second hamlet’
• bradley - hamlets horror is based on his mothers actions subsequent to the death of his father
• stoll - hamlets delay was strictly explained by generic convention
• adelman - influenced by freud, notes how significant gertrude is to hamlet; argues her sexuality is so disturbing becayse she collapses the father figures on which hamlet has fashioned his own identity
• adelman - closet scene allows hamlet to reimagine gertrude as a good mother
• barker and belsey - hamlet lacks agency
• heilbrun - challenges the typically hollow, shallow interpretation of gertrude
• jardine - hamlets fear of gertrudes sexuality is expressive of male fear of female interference in patrilinear inheritance.
• staging the ghost

  — ghost has been invisible to the audience as well - suggests hallucination

  — barton - Gertrude sees the ghost but lies; couldn't face the implications
• staging ophelia and hamlet

  — 18th C - characterised by shouting and door slamming

  — 19th C - softened towards ophelia, kissing hands etc

  — modern productions made hamlet come close to raping her
• the closet scene


  — early stages, scene would have only been verbally violent

  — setting is a choice; ‘closet’ originally somewere small and private - some made it a bedroom to emphasise oedipal reading
• the ending


  — baty - contrasts hamlet wearing all black to fortinbras in all white, signifying hope for a sick country

  — a czech production showed laertes wanting to get rid of the rapier but being prevented
• showalter - for hamlet madness is metaphysical, for ophelia it is a product of the female body and nature
• french - r&g sacrifice the bond of human freidnship for social propriety
• mack and levin - doubt is the prevailing emotion in hamlet. all major characters are at some time or in some way acting a part
• bradley - hamlets longing for death was caused by the disclosure of his mothers true nature, his aching heart, and his body weakened with sorrow
• smith on olivier - the play beginning and ending with a canopied bed emphasises the centrality of her sexuality in the play
• edwards - no doubt in hamlets failure. his attempt to rid denmark of claudius has left the country in a worse state than it was.
• goddard - shakespeare himself disapproved of revenge
• knight - hamlet is a poison in the veins of the community
• knight - claudius has a host of good qualities
• mcevoy - claudius can be seen to be an effective, modern ruler
• knott - a fable abut totalitarian tyranny
• schofield - claudius is morally empty
• neely - ophelias madness is a hysterical reflection of hamlets madness
• reynolds - for the elizabethan's, ghosts were accepted as real presences
• flint - hamlets antic disposition gives him the license of a fool to speak the truth