HOW CAN I PREPARE WHEN I DO NOT KNOW THE QUESTION?

5 stage approach What is Hamlet about? Think big picture. Work thoroughly through the text. Select a number of key scenes or passages. For this task you will need TWO but you must must make passing reference across the play as a whole. Arrange your knowledge to answer the question. Support each stage of your reading with quotations and language analysis Support your reading with reference to other perspectives and context.

The question Q1) To what extent has your personal response to Hamlet been shaped by the enduring power of Shakespeare’s characterisation of Hamlet? Support your evaluation with a close analysis of TWO key extracts from Hamlet.

What to do? Knowledge of play Relevant & wide-ranging quotes LFF analysis Clear structure Passing reference to “other readings”

Intro What IS a strong, clear intro? -RTQ: Directly address and answer the exact question asked  -Restate question in own words using synonyms -2 theses or 1 central thesis/theme and 2 main supporting points

Intro Outline relevant scenes Details (title, author, year) and brief comparative thesis statement/s on supporting/challenging critic/s, visual interp. (film/graphic novel), their context/values vs. yours and how these different interp.s have shaped your personal response to the play

Context-Elizabethan/ Modern  Centrality of Christian practices  Power of the Monarchy and the privileged  Renaissance in literature  Accepted structure in society  Church and Monarchy no longer predominate  Individualistic / permissive society  Modern angst and existential questioning  Pessimism of post WW2 society

Body Deep knowledge of original play is fundamental  rich, profound, meaningful, quotes (not just the famous ones!) Includes knowledge of and comment on Passing reference to critic/visual rep rather than going off on tangent for a full page Textual integrity or lack thereof: What is it? Use synonyms: unity, fluidity, cohesion, links, patterns, flaws, misunderstandings, inconsistencies. Comment on TI when making passing reference to other scenes in terms of characterisation or thematic content.

Extra things… Hamlet = play or character? UNDERLINE TITLE! Hamlet’s NOT Hamlets or hamlets “i” before “e” except after “c” = “ei” NOT “ie”, eg. perceive, receive, deceit. Paragraphing and layout = leave a line in between intro, body, body paragraphs and conclusion

Extra things… Hamlet = play or character? UNDERLINE TITLE! Hamlet’s NOT Hamlets or hamlets “i” before “e” except after “c” = “ei” NOT “ie”, eg. perceive, receive, deceit. Paragraphing and layout = leave a line in between intro, body, body paragraphs and conclusion

Hamlet explores the individual’s need to find truth and meaning in what appears to be a meaningless world.

Hamlet a deep thinker; a moral character; delays his revenge on Claudius; there are questions over Hamlet’s madness; a complicated relationship with women…

Will the real Hamlet please stand up! lost in a deep pit of pessimism Cruel Poisoned by grief Exquisite sensibility Goethe’s “ beautiful, pure, noble…without the strength of nerve that makes a hero.”

Impotent…averse to action “Hamlet has no firm belief in himself or in anything else…” A.W. Schlegal The Christian struggles with the natural man Procrastinates because he is blanketed by the melancholy of the death of his father A.C. Bradley Freud and Earnest Jones see Hamlet suffering from an Oedipus complex In love with death, not life; a figure of nihilism

Themes Revenge Madness Death Appearance and Reality Restoration of the natural order…

Act 5.1 Does Hamlet reach some sort of answer to the questions that have been troubling him? Death inescapable, the great leveler, a natural process Does this help Hamlet find meaning “ If it be now…”