Hamlet: Critics, Context, Stage Craft & Bonus
, Critics:
[Hamlet, Character]
Hazlitt: “he is the prince of philosophical speculators” — Hamlet reflects the complexities of being
human within his thoughts and indecision; “we apply ourselves” to his situation because of his human
appeal
Adelman: “Hamlet seems to set himself [...] not to avenge his father but to remake his mother” —
rather than the priority of revenge, Hamlet’s focus on Gertrude’s chastity interrupts the revenge for his
father
Kerrigan: “surrounded by people and places which remorselessly remind him of the dead king”;
Bowlby: “yearning for the lost figure”
Devlin: “as to young Hamlet’s religious views, the impression that one gets is that they were typically
Elizabethan; he was a conforming Protestant, with Catholic inclinations counterbalanced by an
increasing tendency to skepticism”
S. J. Cole: “denied normal outlets for mourning his father”
Bevington: “the humanising of Hamlet is the strategy needed to counter the dehumanising thrust of
revenge tradition” — Hamlet’s indecision humanises him in his act of revenge, unlike most
protagonists in revenge plays
Jones: Hamlet “identifies with [Claudius] too much” and cannot kill him because he “fulfilled Hamlet’s
own Oedipal fantasies”
Belsey: “men in Shakespeare’s time were in perpetual fear of feminisation” — Hamlet’s indecision
would have been seen as contradictory, thinking he should act; a modern audience would be less
wanting and would be suspicious of expected violence
Ryan: “paralysed by the futility of revenge his society demands that he seek” — Hamlet is indecisive
because he is ahead of his time, in a corrupt and expectant “out of joint” society; Claudius’s death is
inconsequential as his evil is a product of his time
Nietzche: “Hamlet is not a man who thinks too much, but rather a man who thinks too well”
[Disapproving of Hamlet]
Eliot: “the play is most certainly an artistic failure” and “Hamlet’s behaviour and moods are in excess
of the facts”
Lawrence: “Hamlet, how boring [...] speeches, full of other folks’ whoring”
[Horatio]
Adkins: “Horatio receives his education in Wittenberg, and throughout the play, he comes to
represent a thoroughly Protestant mindset”; “Hamlet assumes Horatio’s skepticism toward a ghost
from purgatory (“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio / Than are dreamt of in your
philosophy” 5.1)
, Critics:
[Hamlet, Character]
Hazlitt: “he is the prince of philosophical speculators” — Hamlet reflects the complexities of being
human within his thoughts and indecision; “we apply ourselves” to his situation because of his human
appeal
Adelman: “Hamlet seems to set himself [...] not to avenge his father but to remake his mother” —
rather than the priority of revenge, Hamlet’s focus on Gertrude’s chastity interrupts the revenge for his
father
Kerrigan: “surrounded by people and places which remorselessly remind him of the dead king”;
Bowlby: “yearning for the lost figure”
Devlin: “as to young Hamlet’s religious views, the impression that one gets is that they were typically
Elizabethan; he was a conforming Protestant, with Catholic inclinations counterbalanced by an
increasing tendency to skepticism”
S. J. Cole: “denied normal outlets for mourning his father”
Bevington: “the humanising of Hamlet is the strategy needed to counter the dehumanising thrust of
revenge tradition” — Hamlet’s indecision humanises him in his act of revenge, unlike most
protagonists in revenge plays
Jones: Hamlet “identifies with [Claudius] too much” and cannot kill him because he “fulfilled Hamlet’s
own Oedipal fantasies”
Belsey: “men in Shakespeare’s time were in perpetual fear of feminisation” — Hamlet’s indecision
would have been seen as contradictory, thinking he should act; a modern audience would be less
wanting and would be suspicious of expected violence
Ryan: “paralysed by the futility of revenge his society demands that he seek” — Hamlet is indecisive
because he is ahead of his time, in a corrupt and expectant “out of joint” society; Claudius’s death is
inconsequential as his evil is a product of his time
Nietzche: “Hamlet is not a man who thinks too much, but rather a man who thinks too well”
[Disapproving of Hamlet]
Eliot: “the play is most certainly an artistic failure” and “Hamlet’s behaviour and moods are in excess
of the facts”
Lawrence: “Hamlet, how boring [...] speeches, full of other folks’ whoring”
[Horatio]
Adkins: “Horatio receives his education in Wittenberg, and throughout the play, he comes to
represent a thoroughly Protestant mindset”; “Hamlet assumes Horatio’s skepticism toward a ghost
from purgatory (“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio / Than are dreamt of in your
philosophy” 5.1)
