Revision:Hamlet - Example Questions

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Hamlet’s principal flaw is that he refuses to take personal responsibility

Hamlet is fortune’s fool: a victim of intractable circumstances.

Hamlet’s problem is that he sees too clearly.

Hamlet’s problem is that he rationalises and reflects endlessly.

Claudius is a mere stage villain.

Claudius is a subtle blend of accomplished kingship and anguished conscience.

Hamlet’s deep love for and disappointment in his mother are the root of his anguish.

Hamlet’s misogynistic treatment of women must alienate the audience and undermine our sympathy for him.

Gertrude is a woman without moral compass and wilfully blind to what is going on around her.

In the course of the play, Gertrude moves towards increased independence and a heightened moral stance.

The women in this play are passive ciphers, acted upon and ultimately lacking admirably qualities.

There is dignity and considerable pathos in the reactions of both women to events in the play.

The presentation of Laertes is a dramatic criticism of Hamlet’s inaction.

The audience has little respect for either Hamlet or Laertes as avengers.

Laertes and Fortinbras provide between them models of the manly conduct aspired to.

Laertes and Fortinbras both embody inadequate conventions of manliness beside Hamlet’s complex personality.

Throughout the play, Hamlet is trying to recover the stability of natural family life.

Both the families in the play are flawed, dysfunctional and ultimately self destructive.

Madness and the supernatural are used as plot devices to heighten dramatic tension

Madness is portrayed as an apt response for characters under intense psychological pressure.

This is in essence a revenge play.

Shakespeare shows that violence breeds violence and that revenge accomplishes very little.

The essence and power of ‘Hamlet’ is theatre and theatricality

The power of this play lies in its realism.

A sense of moral decay pervades the play

Denmark is nothing exceptional – the play simply reflects political realities.

This is a play where most people are acting a part for most of the time.

At the heart of the tragedy lies a failure to act.

The soliloquy in ‘Hamlet’ is too theatrical a device for a modern audience to respond to.

The soliloquy is central to our understanding and the impact of the play.

Hamlet’s soliloquies reveal a mind obsessed by disgust at himself and the world.

In the soliloquies, Shakespeare displays Hamlet’s profound moral sensibility.

A product of it’s time; ‘Hamlet’ is primarily a Renaissance play.

‘Hamlet’ is a curiously modern, twenty-first century play.

A dark, solemn and weighty tragedy obsessed with death and decay

The play is shot through with comedy.

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Originally written by BeckySparrow on TSR Forums.