 Choose a play in which a power struggle is central to the action.  Explain briefly the circumstances of the power struggle and discuss the extent to  which it contributes to your appreciation of theme and/or character in the play as a  whole.

 Choose a play in which a power struggle is central to the action.  Explain briefly the circumstances of the power struggle and discuss the extent to which it contributes to your appreciation of theme and/or character in the play as a  whole.

 Power struggle: between Claudius and Hamlet.  Circumstances: Old Hamlet- the king- has recently died. Claudius, his brother, has taken the throne and married his widow, Gertrude. Hamlet, Old Hamlet’s son, discovers that Hamlet was murdered by Claudius. He swears revenge but repeatedly procrastinates.

 Appreciation of theme: nature and legitimacy of revenge / difficulty in distinguishing between appearance and reality/  Character- Hamlet: thoughtful, intellectual, melancholy, procrastinates- not suited to role as revenge hero, constantly considers moral consequences of his actions  Character- Claudius: evil, ruthless, Machiavellian, manipulative, sinful.

1. Circumstances of the power struggle (perhaps add to introduction). 2. Understanding of Hamlet’s character- initial unhappiness 3. Characterisation of Claudius- Ghost scene/ manipulation of Leartes/ soliloquy 4. Hamlet’s procrastination 5. ‘To be, or not to be’. 6. Final scene- the climax of the power struggle

 Understanding of Hamlet’s character- initial unhappiness  Hamlet’s isolation within Elsinore depicted  His dislike of Claudius highlighted  His misery and longing for death revealed in his first soliloquy  This is the result of Claudius’ power. This helps to prepare the audience for the power struggle

 ‘A little more than kin, and less than kind.’  ‘more than kin’ now he’s both Claudius’ nephew and his stepson. ‘Less than kind’ in two senses: not kindly disposed to Claudius, nor does he think he is of the same kind.

 ‘ I am too much i’ th’ sun.’  He is having too much of his uncle calling him sun, and also of the Sun. Hamlet, we will soon discover, longs for death- to be out of the sun.

 ‘Seems Madam? Nay, it is: I know not seems:’  This speech develops the theme of appearance and reality. Hamlet reacts furiously, feeling that his mother is implying that his mourning is playacting.  Hamlet feels it is his mother who must have been acting the bereaved widow just a week or two previously.

 O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!  Hamlet reveals his deep anguish and melancholy. He wishes to die, but suicide is viewed as a sin. He desires to dissolve into dew- an impermanent substance.  Contrast established between what is seen as divine and what is seen as earthly (soiled flesh).

 Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely.  Image of an untended garden leading to disease and corruption. Shakespeare’s imagery suggests that incestuous marriage is a violation of nature, which creates disease in the King’s court.

 So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly.  Juxtaposition used to highlight difference between Old Hamlet and Claudius. Hyperion-the Titan god of light, represents honour, virtue, and regality -- all traits belonging to Hamlet's father, the true King of Denmark.  Satyrs, the half-human and half-beast companions of the wine-god Dionysus, represent lasciviousness and overindulgence, much like Hamlet's usurping uncle Claudius.

 Manipulation of empty rhetoric in 1,2 ( appearance and reality)  Description of him as snake/ serpent by the Ghost  Commits regicide, fratricide and incest- great sins to Shakespeare’s audience.  Driven on by ambition. (Look at his soliloquy for this).

'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forgèd process of my death Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown. Metaphor used to highlight how Denmark is infected/ corrupted by Claudius’ actions. Serpent is symbolic here. Represents the destruction of Adam’s happiness in the Garden of Eden and the introduction of sin into the world. Claudius is ‘the serpent’ who now wears the crown.

 In his only soliloquy, Claudius reveals his guilt over the killing of his brother: “Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven. It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t, A brother’s murder. Pray can I not.”

Manipulation of Laertes Link to theme of revenge “To cut his throat i' the church.” C: ‘No place indeed should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds.”

 Loves his father deeply and wants revenge  To kill someone in cold blood is not in his nature; he is miscast as a revenge hero.  Concerned with the consequences of his actions, particularly in regards to his soul the life to come.  Does not kill Claudius when the opportunity presents itself.  It is his power struggle with Claudius that reveals these aspects of his character to the audience.

 Unlike other soliloquies, this speech does consider the play’s action.  Concentrates on general philosophical musing on some of the play’s main themes.  These musings are caused by Hamlet’s power struggle with Claudius, and they reveal how his character develops as a result of this struggle.

 To be, or not to be: that is the question:  To live, or to die. This is the problem/ question that Hamlet considers in this soliloquy.

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? Here Hamlet considers whether it is better to suffer life’s misfortunes ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’, or to actively seek to end one’s troubles. The metaphor ‘to take arms against a sea of troubles, /And by opposing end them’ compares the idea of hopeless resistance to life’s ills to the futility of fighting against the sea. This captures Hamlets feelings of being unequal to the task that has been assigned to him.

To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. Hamlet compares death to sleep and thinks of the end to suffering, pain, and uncertainty it might bring. However, ‘Devoutly’ is a religious word, which suggests that there is more than simply an end to suffering to be considered.

To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: Hamlet alters his metaphor of sleep to include the possibility of dreaming; he says that the dreams that may come in the sleep of death are daunting, that they “must give us pause.” ‘Rub’ – obstacle This mortal coil- this earthly life/ physical body/ earthly suffering

there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life;  Hamlet decides that it is this uncertainty and fear about the nature of the afterlife that makes us stretch out the suffering of life so long.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, A powerful metaphor which depicts Time as whipping suffering humans and exposing us to scorn. In Elizabethan times, criminals were whipped in public. This image is being used to introduce the sufferings that humans would endure in their lives.

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin?  Here Hamlet lists a series of the scorns of times, ranging from lovesickness to hard work to political oppression, and asks who would choose to bear those miseries if he could bring himself peace with a knife.  ‘Quietus’ -peace  ‘Bodkin’ - dagger

But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Hamlet decides that it is terror /dread of the afterlife which makes people submit to the suffering of their lives rather than go to another state of existence which might be even more miserable.

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. Consideration of the uncertainty of the afterlife leads to excessive moral sensitivity, which makes action impossible. This mirrors Hamlet’s own situation where uncertainty over the Ghost’s identity leads him to contemplation and prevents him from acting.

 In this scene, Hamlet’s character has developed into someone who realises that there are times when action is required.  Briefly refer to his final soliloquy (How all occasions do inform against me,)  as the turning point for this development.

 Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon-- He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother, Popp'd in between the election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life, And with such cozenage--is't not perfect conscience, To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd, To let this canker of our nature come In further evil?

 Hamlet also is no longer tortured by thoughts about suicide and death.  there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all:  Hamlet expresses forcefully his belief in God. All that matters is being prepared for the next world. Death will happen when God decides; there is no need to struggle against it or to wish for it to happen sooner.

 Discuss the symbolic nature of the deaths  Hamlet, Laertes, Gertrude and Claudius are killed by the poison that Claudius’ regicide and incest caused to infect Denmark.  Hamlet is a martyr as his death ends the power struggle and cleanses Denmark of Claudius’ sinful rule.