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Harold Bloom (2003) Hamlet: Poem Unlimited
Summary notes and quotes from Bloom's 2003 companion criticism to "Shakespeare: The invention of the Human"
Ch1 Inferring Hamlet
“Revenge upon revenge tragedy, and is of no genre” — Hamlet is a totally new invention of literature
Ghost’s spirit we are supposed to think is the king’s but he expresses no love for Hamlet as his son.
“Hamlet can be no older than about twenty at the start”: Breaking of the three unities
“Is there an anxiety that Hamlet may actually be Claudius’ son?” Existential sub textual crisis
“For it is a play about playing, about acting out rather than avenging”
Ch 2 Horatio
“Horatio, totally colourless” = figure of no interest, he does not bring out qualities Hamlet does not have
“Through Horatio we the audience contaminate the play”
Ch3 Metatheatre
“Only the most substantial shadow in a play of shadows”
“To protest that actually Hamlet is cold” Rejects G. Wilson Knight’s reading of Hamlet as a disease in Denmark.
The nature of performance, given the fact that the ‘tragedians of the city’ were Shakespeare’s own company, means you don't focus on the action but on the man.
Ch 4 To be or not to be
“This is not a meditation seriously contemplating suicide” — to be or not to be speech is, again, a performance. A reading that could perhaps be challenged.
Ch5 Ophelia
“Astonishingly brutal verbal assault upon Ophelia” — Hamlet’s Nunnery scene rant exceeds the minimum requirement to alert Claudius he knows he is watching.
“He is murdering Ophelia” When Hamlet consigns Ophelia to a light of pious chastity he is starting her on the path to suicide, unable to conform to the silent and obedient image of feminity. Hamlet is not always meant to be sympathised with: he is the best and worst of all of us.
“Extraordinary aesthetic effect” to Ophelia’s death, link to Elaine Showalter’s works.
Ch6 the Players
“Holding the mirror up to nature becomes rather a dark activity” IF the Freudian reading of Hamlet is true, then any activity of playing is an unfolding we cannot affect.
Ch7 The Mousetrap
“There are no traces of Oedipus in Hamlet” — The Hamlet we see is more theatrical than driven by an Oedipus complex.
Ch8 Gertrude
“Amiable lustiness” Hamlet admonishes his mother’s actually rather normal sexual appetite
“Getrude and Claudius certainly are one of the happiest marriages in Shakespeare” — commentary on performance and romance, depends entirely on how Getrude is played when she is not speaking (Dr. Emma Smith’s webinar)
Ch8 Claudius
“Shuffling Claudius” — Describes the King as an unconvincing villain and weak match for Hamlet. He is only a “minor league rhetorician”
Ch 11 Grave Digger
“New Adam, Hamlet,” — Hamlet is the new image of man, death’s scholar. Whereas “The Grave-digger is the reality principle”
Ch12 A sea Change
“Act V becomes the play of Hamlet the Dan, whom we have scarcely encountered before” — Hamlet returns with a greater level of decisiveness only hinted at in the closet scene.
Ch14 We Defy Augury
“The audacity of his re-entry into the Danish court” — Hamlet's return to the Danish court sets in motion the play’s denouement: kill or be killed.
“But he no longer desires to be king” — Hamlet’s return is not driven by the ghost’s request to defend the dynasty, but instead it is unclear what he wants other than an ominous rejection of fate.
“Hamlet uniquely fuses apprehension and comprehension” — Restated concept that Hamlet’s ‘overbalance of the reflective faculty’ (S.T Coleridge) limits his ability to act
Ch15
“The final act of Hamlet is a Maelstrom” — Likened to a powerful dangerous whirlpool, the final act is a destruction of the previous four. This is to the extent that act 5 turns Hamlet “into an angel of destruction”
A sea change = do we like the new Hamlet: “the prince frightens us as much as he attracts us”
Ch 16
Hamlet vs. Laertes: Bloom rejects any direct comparison between Laertes and Hamlet, Laertes is “too absurdly slight” to be Hamlet’s other self.
Ch 17 Fortinbras
Bloom Questions why the pair never meet, despite their distinct personalities and similarities
“Fortinbras is a head-basher” — Fortinbras is a chip off the old block of kingship, used to portray that Hamlet is the exact opposite of him.
“Audacious irony: Hamlet receives full military honours” — Hamlet’s ending is ironic in the sense that he is not a soldier, but a poet, rather than that Fortinbras is performing a succession from Hamlet.
Ch 17
“There is an end to Hamlet, but not to Hamlet” — The posthumous reputation of Hamlet means his character has come to represent the complexities of humanity.
Ch 18 Hamlet stands out
“Everything in the play that is not Himself himself is peculiarly archaic” — Hamlet’s character is designed to shine out.
Ch 19 the nature of the play
“A mediation upon fathers and sons” Cycles of revenge narratives as well as exploring the nature of loyalty and honour
“Are we to believe Hamlet loves authority?” Probably not, he loathes corrupt authority and is never constrained by it.
Ch 20 Production of Hamlet
“Every production that I’ve seen thins the complexities out” — Ambiguity makes Hamlet’s character, and without it is leads to a Hamlet that we cannot associate with so much as the one on the page.
Ch 21 Hamlet’s madness
“I do not believe in his madness, the antic disposition of a great ironist” — Hamlet’s antic disposition is part of his extreme intelligence rather than any greater melancholia.
“Hamlet’s, father and son, must share the same name, though they possess nothing else in common” — Hamlet at first follows the duty he ought to subscribe to, but shortly rejects it and what it represents.
Ch 22 Comedy
“Hamlert himself is a master comedian” — Hamlet mocks the nature of the play, it is as if he hold the supreme dramatic irony over every other character so that they are fake, and he is real.
“Hamlet’s spiritual father is Yorick” Held and relatable, Hamlet’s father figure is Yorick.