Hamlet Critical Quotes

David Scott Kastan- "A rarity most beloved: Shakespeare and the Idea of Tragedy"

Kastan captures what it is that makes a Shakespearan play a Shakespearan Tragedy. He identifies that for it to be a tragedy, there must be a fall from grace to a wrecked character utterly in despair.

"the idea of tragedy as the fall from prosperity to wretchedness became commonplace"

"Tragedy, for Shakespeare, is the genre of uncompensated suffering"

A.D. Nuttal- "Aristotle and After"

Nuttal questions why watching a character's pain and suffereing gives us, the audience, such enjoyment.

"In the tragic theatre suffering and death are perceived as matter for grief and fear, after which it seems that grief and fear become in their turn matte for enjoyment."

"one can enjoy an activity or process without at any point thinking consciously, 'I am enjoying this...instead one may be thinking of the activity itself"

A.C. Bradley- "The Substance of Shakespearean Tragedy"

Bradley defines what a 'Tragic Hero' is

"no play at the end of which the hero remains alive is, in the full Shakespearean sense, a tragedy...a tale of suffering and calamity conducting to death"

"Tragedy with Shakespeare is concerned always with persons of 'high degree'; often with kings or princes"

Maynard Mack- "What Happens in Shakespearean Tragedy"

Mack argues that madness in Shakespearean plays are actually beneficial to both character and to the development of the play. It provides an insight, and a voice which they couldn't express when they were 'sane'

"madness, when actually exhibited, was dramatically useful"

"madness has a further dimension, as insight"