Hamlet

1. Hamlet Timed Essay Feedback

2. Positives • Some really excellent essays • Much better analysis and evaluation • Consistent relevance to task

3. Areas to Improve • Linkage (or lack of) in topic sentences • Use (or lack ) of apostrophes • Spelling (particularly of soliloquy/soliloquies) • Coverage of Hamlet’s procrastination • Discussion of the play’s climax/ final scene

4. Topic Sentences • Refer back to topic previous paragraph • Introduce new paragraph

5. Previous paragraph: Hamlet’s isolation and misery at the play’s outset. • New paragraph: Hamlet’s longing for death in his first soliloquy. • Topic sentence: Shakespeare depicts the true extent of Hamlet’s initial misery in his first soliloquy.

6. Previous paragraph: Hamlet’s first soliloquy and his desire to commit suicide. • Next paragraph: ‘To be or not to be.’

7. Apostrophes • Used to indicate ownership: • Hamlet’s father; Claudius’ brother; the play’s tragic hero. • Use to indicate omission: • Don’t abbreviate in a critical essay because it isn’t formal language.

8. Hamlet’s procrastination • You must discuss this fully. • The ambiguous nature of the Ghost is not the only cause of it. • Hamlet’s contemplative nature means he is unsuited for the role of revenge hero. He always stops to consider the consequences of his actions, particularly their impact on his soul. He is equally plagued with questions about the afterlife, about the wisdom of suicide, about what happens to bodies after they die—the list is extensive. This philosophising prevents him from acting until it is too late.

9. The play’s climax • By the outset of the play’s final scene, Hamlet has realised that there is a time when action is required: He that hath killed my king and whored my mother, Popped in between th' 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 damned To let this canker of our nature come In further evil?

10. He also appears to have overcome his longing for death, trusting God’s providence instead: • “Not a whit. We defy augury. 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.” • He appears a more determined and secure character. This makes his sudden death feel more tragic.

11. Hamlet finally takes action, but only after being spurred to it by the most extreme circumstances one might consider possible: watching his mother die and knowing that he, too, will die in moments. • Is his death shameful, heroic or neither? • You decide.

12. Horatio’s words reflect the audience’s feelings on Hamlet’s death and the tragic waste of human potential it represents: “Now cracks a noble heart.—Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest

13. Conclusions • Refer back to task • Try to sum up your main points • Do not end with a list of techniques • Avoid single sentence conclusions (and introductions)

14. Exemplar conclusion • In ‘Hamlet’, Shakespeare powerfully evokes sympathy for his tragic young prince. Hamlet’s procrastination may well result in him losing his life. However, throughout the play Shakespeare has illustrated that all life on Earth soon turns to dust; what is of greater importance is what happens once we have ‘shuffled off this mortal coil’. In this respect, we are relieved to know that hamlet’s soul, unlike so many other in the play remains uncorrupted.