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Hamlet Critical Interpretations

This document provides summaries of several critical interpretations of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet from 1919 to 2017. It outlines perspectives from critics such as T.S. Eliot, Jan Kott, Elaine Showalter, Harold Bloom, Paul Cantor, and M. Tyler Sasser on topics like Hamlet's character, themes of gender and sexuality, and cultural relevance over time.

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36 views

Hamlet Critical Interpretations

This document provides summaries of several critical interpretations of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet from 1919 to 2017. It outlines perspectives from critics such as T.S. Eliot, Jan Kott, Elaine Showalter, Harold Bloom, Paul Cantor, and M. Tyler Sasser on topics like Hamlet's character, themes of gender and sexuality, and cultural relevance over time.

Uploaded by

jeffgardener3
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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HAMLET CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS

T.S. ELIOT: Hamlet and His Problems (1919)


- Eliot famously criticised the play as “an artistic failure”
- The main focus of his criticism was the lack of an objective correlative within the play
- This was a concept coined by Eliot meaning that texts and plays must have visible and
tangible representations of emotion for the audience to have an emotional response to
- To him this is lacking within Hamlet and so we don’t relate to him or his struggle since
there is no tangible representation of his psyche on the stage
- His essay was part of Literary New Criticism and suggested that texts are autotelic meaning
that they’re sufficient on their own and don’t need to be read with context in mind
JAN KOTT (1956)
- Wrote a critical review of a Hamlet performance during the Polish Thaw
- Poland was experiencing temporary liberalization and so things like theatrical
performances were allowed
- The Roman Zawistowski adaptation of Hamlet at the Old Theatre in Cracow was
viewed as mirroring Poland’s previous political situation
- Hamlet was even nicknamed ‘The Polish Prince’ due to the similarities

DAVID LEVERENZ: The Woman in Hamlet (1978)

ELAINE SHOWALTER (1985)

- Stated that Ophelia had been misrepresented by past Hamlet criticism by portraying
her tragedy as subordinate to Hamlet’s
- Claimed she was a “cipher of female sexuality to be deciphered by feminist
interpretation”
- “To liberate Ophelia from the text, or to make her its tragic center, is to re-appropriate
her for our own ends”
- Ophelia’s symbolic meanings and motifs are inherently feminine making her
representative of wider women within Hamlet
- She represents the virgin-whore dichotomy with her expectation from those around
her whilst also being sexually explicit and symbolically ‘deflowering’ herself
- Fluidity and water inextricably linked to feminity

HAROLD BLOOM: Hamlet: Poem Unlimited (2003)

- Bloom stated that Hamlet as a play had no genre and was a “kaleidoscope” reflecting
what we want to find in it
- Hamlet demands a “cosmological drama” and seems discontent with the play he’s in
- Emphasised Hamlet’s intellect and stated that the misreading that Hamlet’s hamartia
is his inaction is false and that he actually thinks his way out of all problems within
the play
- Stated that “something dies within Hamlet before the play opens” and that his only
meaningful relationship was with Yorick

PAUL CANTOR (2004)

- Cantor sees the main dilemma of Hamlet’s choice to be a classical hero or not as
representative of the ancient classical depiction of the hero (such as Achilles) and the
Christian ideology of a subdued Jesus figure
- He is pulled in one direction by his father’s legacy as a bellicose warrior and yet in
another by the idea of an eternal punishment
- This dilemma is exemplified in Act 3:3 in which Hamlet contemplates the
consequences of killing Claudius whilst he’s praying

M. TYLER SASSER: Hamlet and Millennial Boyhood (2017)


- Cites mid-2000s Y.A novels such as Matt Haig’s The Dead Fathers Club (2006) as
drawing relevant links to the theme of male adolescence
- Linked the late 90s ‘boy crisis’ in cultural conscience to Hamlet’s own struggle with
his role of avenger from his traditionally masculine father
- Hamlet is plagued by his father’s lingering presence of toxic masculinity

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