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?
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•
•
•
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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
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Centrality of
Christian practices
Power of the
Monarchy and the
privileged
Renaissance in
literature
Accepted structure
in society

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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
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•
•
•
•
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…”