Romantic Commentary on Hamlet

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Romantic Period Responses to Hamlet - Coleridge & Hazlitt

The Romantic period spanned the late 18th century to the early 19th century.

What did the Romantics focus on?

The Romantic period of English literature saw writers such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge - joint authors of the hugely influential Lyrical Ballads published in 1798 - explore their fascination with individuals at odds with their societies and with the power of the imagination rather than logic and reason.

Colerige identifies with Hamlet

Commentators throughout this period tended to be much more sympathetic towards Hamlet. Many writers identified with him.
Coleridge imagined that he had a “smack of Hamlet” in himself. By this, he meant that Hamlet, like himself, suffered from an “overbalance of the imaginative power”.

Coleridge on Hamlet's mind

According to Coleridge, Hamlet’s mind is “disturbed” by a lack of “balance” between the “real and the imaginary worlds”.
Hamlet suffers because his imagination, full of images of corruption and decay which he alone can see, overpowers him.

Hazlitt on Hamlet's speeches

Many other commentators looked ‘inwards’ to try to understand the play’s hero, searching for a psychological explanation for Hamlet’s delay.
William Hazlitt wrote in 1817 that Hamlet’s speeches and soliloquies “are as real as our own thoughts”. As such, we can think of Hamlet as a “real” person with a “real” mind.

Hazlitt's definition of Hamlet

Hazlitt defines Hamlet as “the prince of philosophical speculators” who, because he cannot accomplish a “perfect” revenge, “declines it altogether”.
For Hazlitt, Hamlet is compelled to “indulge his imagination” rather than act.

Romantic Period Responses to Hamlet - Shelley & Others

The Romantic period spanned the late 18th century to the early 19th century.

Wilhelm von Schlegel: Hamlet's thoughts

The German poet, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, argued that Hamlet loses himself in “labyrinths of thought” without “end or beginning”.
As a result, his thoughts “cripple” Hamlet from taking action.

Shelley: Hamlet in thought

Percy Bysshe Shelley also saw Hamlet as someone too prone to lose himself in thought: “his profound meditations seem without beginning or end, while he wanders in a wilderness of thought”.
Shelley thought that whenever Hamlet did act, his instinct was to reproach himself: “Whenever he does anything, he seems astonished at himself, and calls it rashness.”

Lamb: identifies with shy Hamlet

Charles Lamb identified with a Hamlet who he saw as delicate and sensitive (“shy, negligent, retiring”) and uncomfortable with his role as revenge hero.

Dramatic poem

Many commentators began to express a view that Hamlet should be considered more of a dramatic poem than a play to be performed on stage.
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb etc. felt that no actor could do the role of Hamlet justice because of its psychological complexity.

Hazlitt's account of Kemble

In 1817, Hazlitt claimed that “There is no play that suffers so much in being transferred to the stage”.
Hazlitt gave a detailed account of John Phillip Kemble, one of the most successful and celebrated actors of the early 19th century, playing the role of Hamlet, judging him to be “too deliberate and formal… too strong and pointed.”
However, this is simply because “Hamlet himself seems hardly capable of being acted.”

1Introduction

1.1Introduction & Background to Hamlet

1.1.1Introduction to Hamlet

1.1.2The Literary Tradition of the Hamlet Story

1.1.3Introduction to the Settings in Hamlet

1.1.4Introduction to Social Issues Raised

2Plot Summary

2.1Act 1: Key Events & Ideas

2.1.1Act 1, Scene 1

2.1.2Act 1, Scene 2

2.1.3Act 1, Scene 3

2.1.4Act 1, Scenes 4-5

2.2Act 2: Key Events & Ideas

2.2.1Act 2, Scene 1

2.2.2Act 2, Scene 2

2.3Act 3: Key Events & Ideas

2.3.1Act 3, Scene 1: Key Events

2.3.2Act 3, Scene 1: Key Ideas

2.3.3Act 3, Scene 2

2.3.4Act 3, Scene 3

2.3.5Act 3, Scene 4

2.4Act 4: Key Events & Ideas

2.4.1Act 4, Scene 1

2.4.2Act 4, Scenes 2-3

2.4.3Act 4, Scene 4

2.4.4Act 4, Scene 5: Key Events

2.4.5Act 4, Scene 5: Key Ideas

2.4.6Act 4, Scene 6

2.4.7Act 4, Scene 7

2.5Act 5: Key Events & Ideas

2.5.1Act 5, Scene 1: Key Events

2.5.2Act 5, Scene 2: Key Events

2.5.3Act 5, Scene 2: Key Ideas

3Character Profiles

3.1Hamlet

3.1.1Hamlet's Speech & Mind

3.1.2Hamlet's Heroic Status

3.1.3Hamlet's State of Mind

3.1.4Hamlet's Indecision/Action Taking

3.2Claudius

3.2.1Claudius' Crime

3.2.2Changing Impressions of Claudius

3.3Gertrude

3.3.1Mystery & Hamlet's View of Gertrude

3.3.2Gertrude's Character

3.3.3Gertrude's Relationship with Hamlet

3.4Ophelia

3.4.1Ophelia

3.5Polonius

3.5.1Portrayal of Polonius & Treatment of Ophelia

3.5.2Polonius' Spying & Death

3.6Laertes

3.6.1Laertes' Popularity & Relationship with Ophelia

3.6.2Laertes' Character Traits

4Key Themes

4.1Regicide in Hamlet

4.1.1Regicide in Hamlet

4.2Madness in Hamlet

4.2.1Madness in Hamlet

4.3Guilt & Punishment in Hamlet

4.3.1Guilt in Hamlet

4.3.2Punishment in Hamlet

4.4Settings in Hamlet

4.4.1Physical Settings & Historical Setting of Hamlet

5Writing Techniques

5.1Structure

5.1.1Structure of Hamlet

5.1.2'Play Within a Play' Structure

5.1.3Play-Acting Motif

5.2Form

5.2.1Soliloquy

5.2.2Comedy

5.3Imagery

5.3.1Imagery of Corruption & Decay

5.3.2Imagery: Healing, Performance & Costume

5.4Language

5.4.1Word Usage & Hendiadys

5.4.2Questions & Classical Allusions

6Context

6.1Social & Historical Context

6.1.1Elizabeth I & Succession

6.1.2Cosmic & Social Hierarchy

6.1.3Renaissance & Emergence of Humanism

6.1.4Regicide

6.1.5The Reformation

6.2Literary Context

6.2.1Seneca Tragedy

6.2.2The Revenge Tragedy

6.3Performance & Textual History

6.3.1Performance History of Hamlet

6.3.2Textual History of Hamlet

7Critical Debates

7.118-19th Century Responses to Hamlet

7.1.1Introduction to Critical Debates

7.1.218th Century Commentary on Hamlet

7.1.3Romantic Commentary on Hamlet

7.220th Century Responses to Hamlet

7.2.1Freudian Response to Hamlet

7.2.2Other Early 20th Century Responses to Hamlet

7.3Feminist Readings of Hamlet

7.3.1Introduction to Feminist Criticism

7.3.2Feminist Readings of Hamlet

7.3.3Presentation of Ophelia

7.4Marxist/Political Readings of Hamlet

7.4.1Introduction to Marxist Criticisms

7.4.2Marxist Readings of Hamlet

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