AO5
recap
• A question of interpretation
• Using the interpretations of others to further your own
• Critical articles, different stage and film versions
• Must be rooted in evidence (i.e. the text)
• Agree or disagree?
Claudius?
‘The equivocal features in Claudius’ language
suggest inner anxieties.’
(Stanley Wells)
Hamlet?
“Hamlet’s appearance and behaviour should strikingly
contrast the rest of the court. His alienation and
melancholy should be emphasised by the director.”
HAMLET VS THE
WORLD…THE
FIRST
SOLILOQUY
Soliloquy
from Latin
solo "to
oneself" +
loquor "I talk
Hamlet has more soliloquies than any other character in
Shakespeare.
Based on your understanding of the character so far, why
do you think this might be?
Soliloquies allow dramatists to:
- Contrast interior and exterior/ inside and outside/
private and public/ reality and appearance
- Dramatises a moral conflict or crisis
- Intensify the relationship between characters that have
the soliloquies
Hamlet is
introduced
as…?
• Isolated in his grief
• A solitary thinker
• Honest and truthful
• Thoughtful and analytical
• Someone struggling with the morality of suicide
• Someone who has lost faith in the world
• Someone with the desire for oblivion
• A misogynist
IN PAIRS, FIND EVIDENCE FOR EACH OF THE
STATEMENTS ABOVE IN THIS SOLILOQUY
Match the
explanation
to the
quote(s)
• This sharp parenthetical phrase (“_____________”) seems
to bubble out in spite of himself; perhaps Shakespeare is
suggesting Hamlet’s problem stems far deeper than his
mother’s recent marriage.
• Imagery associated with transience and dissolving reflects
Hamlet’s desire to cease existing; however, Shakespeare’s
choice of ephemeral image patterns may suggest a
weakness or failure to act. The definitive act of suicide is
sorely at odds with his desire to “________” and “______”,
verbs which deliberately avoid the physical act of dying.
• The disruption in rhythm, indicated by hyphens and
interjections such as “___________” increases as Hamlet
dwells upon what he sees as his mother’s transgressions.
• The use of aposiopesis suggests he cannot process the
reality of the situation: “_________________”
• The open mouthed sound of “_______”and the repetition
of it, creates a sense of lament, but also rage as Hamlet
builds up to the exclamation “How weary, stale, flat and
unprofitable/ Seems to me all the uses of this world!”
Polyptoton
Repetition
Hyperbole
Broken metre
Mythical references
Question marks
Exclamation marks
Register
Metaphor
Images
Parenthesis
Antithesis
Select a couple of quotations from the speech and write a
short explanation of its effects as you would in an essay.
When you are happy with what you have written, write it
out again on a cue-card with gaps.
We will then swap them around and see who can correctly
identify the quotations.
Read to the
end of Act 1,
scene 2
• Hamlet’s response/reaction to the
Ghost (different to fellow scholar’s
Horatio’s and sentinels?)
• How the scene ends – mood and
atmosphere/ use of rhyming
couplet