Read Hamlet’s description of his mother from Act III of Hamlet.And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame When the compulsive ardour gives the charge, Since frost itself as actively doth burn, And reason panders will.
Formalist criticism focuses upon a text’s
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Both historical and feminist criticisms
Which question is most likely to be asked by a reader studying a text with a feminist perspective?
Read the excerpt from Act IV of Hamlet.Rosencrantz: Take you me for a sponge, my lord?Hamlet: Ay, sir, that soaks up the king’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.
Read the excerpt from Hamlet, Act III, scene iv.Gertrude: Why, how now, Hamlet!Hamlet: What’s the matter now?Gertrude: Have you forgot me?Hamlet: No, by the rood, not so: You are the queen, your husband’s brother’s wife; And,—would it were not so!—you are my mother.
Read the words of King Claudius in Act IV of Hamlet.Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends; And let them know both what we mean to do, And what’s untimely done: so, haply, slander, Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter, As level as the cannon to his blank Transports his poison’d shot, may miss our name, And hit the woundless air. O! come away;
A student makes an observation about Hamlet.The focus on succession to the throne in Hamlet would have been interesting to an Elizabethan audience because their own queen had no heir.
Read the dialogue from Act III of Hamlet.Hamlet: Now, mother, what’s the matter?Gertrude: Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.Hamlet: Mother, you have my father much offended.
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