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Hamlet
Module B
Critical
Study of Text
Module B rubric requires students to:
•Develop an informed personal understanding
•Analyse the language, content, construction
•Develop an appreciation of textual integrity
•Critically consider personal interpretations in
the light of the perspectives of others.
•Explore how context influences their own and
others’ responses to the text.
•Consider how the text has been received and
valued.
Textual Integrity…
the unity of a text and how the elements of its form and
language produce a coherent and integrated product
(Syllabus)
Tragedy
Genre
“Tragedy” portrays human suffering and the
decline and death of a hero or heroine.
Dramatic conventions established by the
Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322BC) in
his work The Poetics.
Traditionally the hero was of high status
whose tragic downfall was often attributed to
a character flaw such as excessive pride or
lack of foresight.
Aristotle argued that tragedy trigger a sense
of pity and a cathartic response in the
audience.
Stoic insight and heroic stature comes after a
period of intense suffering and struggle.
Tragedy evolved over time into the Revenge
or ‘blood tragedy that became popular in
Elizabethan Theatre.
Elements of Shakespearean
Tragedy
Exposition:
Characters, Setting and Circumstances
Act I
Rising Action:
Introduction of Conflicts
Act II
Climax:
Turning Point
Act III
In a tragedy, things usually go from bad to
worse in Act III for the tragic hero
Falling Action:
Conflict resolution begins to fall into place
Result of the climax
Act IV
Opposing forces gain dominance
Denouement/Catastrophe
Main conflicts are resolved
Act V
Redemptive suffering and moral victory
despite death of tragic hero
Born into
Responsible
for own fate
nobility
Doomed to
make a
serious error
in
judgement,
falling from
esteem and
honourable
status
Faces and
accepts
death with
honour
Tragic
Hero
Meets a tragic
death
Doomed by
a fatal flaw
Audience moved
by pity for his
fate
Interpreting the text
What key issues and concepts are explored?
How are these communicated to the audience?
How is meaning shaped by language, content and construction?
Complex inter-relationships
Hamlet
• Almost universally considered
one of literature’s most
remarkable characters.
• His enigmatic qualities and
contradictory personality have
intrigued readers and theatergoers for centuries.
• His troubled mind reflects a
humanist introspection, selfawareness and
acknowledgement of personal
flaws Prince of Denmark – the powerless,
Hamlet
philosophical potentate,
the thoughtful prince vs the man of action.
From one
perspective,
Hamlet is a
focus of selfconsciousness,
carefully
managing his
interactions
with external
others. He is
thus a
precursor of
modern
dramatic
characters.
Laertes [instant
reaction / revenge]
Ophelia [madness /
suicide]
“Hamlet”
Fortinbras
[political action]
Horatio [talk /
narration]
From another
perspective,
Hamlet
interacts with
other
characters
who represent
actions and
emotions that
are options for
Hamlet
himself. He is
thus an echo
of medieval,
allegorical
dramatic
figures.
Themes: Revenge and Justice
Three separate revenge plots are found in Hamlet. In
each, a son attempts to avenge the death of his father.
In Revenge tragedies of the period, the ‘hero’s’ fate has been thrust
upon him. Shakespeare places a highly intelligent, sensitive and moral
man in such a situation where his very virtues within an immoral society
become liabilities. His imposed task is to expose the crimes of regicide
and adultery that stain the Danish royal house.
The world of Hamlet is a world of appearances.
The terms ‘apparition’ and ‘seems’ are used repeatedly as are the
ambiguities of the term ‘seem’. The play is filled with contradictions and
nothing is certain. Bonds of love, kinship and loyalty are violated by
incest, betrayal and murder. Hamlet, who is a man of integrity, is
outraged by the hypocrisy, deceit and servile passivity of the court. Yet,
the very nature of the duty he is forced to carry out makes him also a
dissembler, who voluntarily lies and manipulates the truth before he can
finally restore the bond between word and truth.
Death
• Mortality is coupled with a
profound consciousness of
loss. Denmark was once a
garden when the elder Hamlet
had ruled.
• As Hamlet speaks to the
jester’s skull, it becomes a
symbol of death’s inevitability.
Hamlet urges the skull to "get
you to my lady's chamber, and
tell her, let her paint an inch
thick, to this favor she must
come.”
• Hamlet’s soliloquies allows
Shakespeare to explore the
issue of Death and the fragility
of life where all will be ‘eaten’
by worms.
Hamlet’s Rubric
Language techniques help develop themes
and memorable ideas within the play
Aside
Soliloquy
Monologue
Asides are ‘private’
Soliloquies offer
Monologues are
conversations.
insight into the
“public” speeches and
They inform the
speakers’ thoughts
therefore rhetorical
audience about secret and feelings. They are
skills play a major
intentions or
often revelatory about role. They often utilize
meanings behind
the conflicts or inner persuasive techniques
situations, events or turmoil that may exist.
as well as the
characters.
This in turn can have classical methods of
a dramatic bearing on
ethos, pathos and
decisions and actions.
logos. feelings.
Recapping:
Texts develop key themes and ideas through …
• Form- Shakespearean Tragedy
• Themes-honour, duty, verisimilitude
• Construction-5 act structure, chronology, plot and subplots, POV, time-frame
• Characterisation-range, contrast, flaws
• Language -word choice, techniques, soliloquys,
monologues, asides, wit, double entendre etc
• Style-mood, imagery, symbolism, irony, linking motifs