WJEC English Literature A2 Exam 11th June 2015

In general, how would Hamlet be received/interpreted by the Elizabethan audience, compared with a modern audience?

there's a lot of points you could make, but I think one of the main things would be the similarities between the court of Elsinore and the English Privy Council. For all intents and purposes, despite being set in Denmark, Shakespeare was effectively commenting on English politics so it is likely that Elizabethan audiences would've seen overlap, e.g. the question of succession, with Claudius and Hamlet, that was a big issue with Queen Elizabeth. Polonius has also been compared with the Elizabethan spy master William Cecil, as spying networks were rife when he was advisor to Elizabeth. Guess in someways that could still be relevant to today's audience as we are often under surveillance. So guess overall the state of affairs in Elizabethan times would've meant it resounded more with them.
Oh and people actually did believe in ghosts in those days, religion etc was obviously more of a big deal!

Plus I presume you're doing The Revenger's Tragedy as well and I heard that Middleton may have been portraying the Italians in such a way due to the general xenophobia in Elizabethan England, which would also apply to Denmark I guess!

(sorry quite a long post)

Thank you very much, this was so helpful!



...and I am actually studying William Blake myself!

Hamlet Themes Predictions 2015:
Women/ Misogyny
Ears/Hearing
Disease
Corruption
Crime/Punishment
Uncertainty
Religion/ Honour
Incest??

Hamlet Themes that have already come up in Summer 2011 - Summer 2014 (not in order):
Decay
Loyalty
Sympathy
Conflict
Chance and accident
Political and Social values
Personal and Political dimensions
Pretence and Hypocrisy
Justice
Madness
Good can triumph over evil
Ugly behaviour and horrifying events
How things seem and how they really are

no worries, it's something I've been looking at a fair bit since our mock as I had no idea what AO4 was particularly! wooh blake! are you learning whole poems or just quotations from lots of different ones?

I wouldn't have thought ears or incest would come up alone, but presume they could be quite a large aspect of corruption or something? The theme of acting/metatheatricality specifically hasn't come up!

Hamlet Themes Predictions 2015:
Women/ Misogyny
Ears/Hearing
Disease
Corruption
Crime/Punishment
Uncertainty
Religion/ Honour
Incest??

Hamlet Themes that have already come up in Summer 2011 - Summer 2014 (not in order):
Decay
Loyalty
Sympathy
Conflict
Chance and accident
Political and Social values
Personal and Political dimensions
Pretence and Hypocrisy
Justice
Madness
Good can triumph over evil
Ugly behaviour and horrifying events
How things seem and how they really are

What paragraphs would you do on ears/hearing or disease???

Well there is a good amount of quotes for ears and hearing in various scenes of the play and is linked with spying and deceit but it easily goes unnoticed for instance in Act 3 Scene 4 Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight/ Ears with out hands or eyes...' and 'O, speak to me no more! / These words like daggers enter in mine ears' and many more...

And I just found out that women came up in 2010 even though it was 5 years ago. It's unlikely they'll repeat a theme when there are plenty more that haven't come up yet.

Basically, I'm focussing on 10ish poems as in depth as possible...I will try and memorise about 4/5 of the most important quotes from each! It's actually not difficult to learn them that way. I'd find it impossible to learn them off by heart haha!

Well regarding disease you want to talk about it as a metaphor so for instance the quote "Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,Infects unseen" you could mention that disease here is used a metaphor to illustrate the impact of corruption on wider society as opposed to those who are in immediate contact - so Claudius is made aware that Norway wants to invade and attack Denmark and writes a letter to Fortinbras's uncle to invade Poland instead. Claudius has no control over Poland but he is subjecting another country to death and destruction and it is this corruption that infects the unseen (being those who are unsuspecting victims and citizens of the country) other points just talk about how disease inhibits correct functioning of the monarchy - disease of the mind - Ophelia's madness - spreading disease of revenge - hamlet to Claudius - Laertes to hamlet, or in Act 4 Scene 3 Claudius sees hamlet as a disease "Like the hectic in my blood he rages" acting as an obstacle or illness he must cure himself of - just remember that disease is not literal except for Ophelia's madness but rather a metaphor to comment on the issues within the play.

Regarding ears and hearing - it's a motif in hamlet to reflect corruption - such as old hamlet being poisoned the ear, and an inability to trust what you hear/ what people say - so issues with lying and issues of hearing being a sense that fails you - you can only believe what you see as opposed to what you hear. In Act 1 Scene 5 "so the whole ear of Denmark/ is forged by a process of death/ rankly abused" forged process suggesting the false stories - and the fact that the country was led to believe old hamlet died as opposed to being killed, it is this ignorance in which the country will suffer from and just overall the impact of relying on words and what they hear can impact on an individuals judgement. Like in early Acts Hamlet says he loves Ophelia but in Act 3 scene 1 i think he says "I loved thee not" - so which is it did he love her or nah? :P He did love her because when he visited her grave he said "I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers/ Could not, with all their quantity of love/ Make up my sum,"- but the fact that he said he did not love her could be a factor as to why she became mad and thus what you hear having an emotional and psychological impact of one's well being as well as judgement... But yeah there's plenty more if you look hard enough...

no don't get me wrong, there's plenty on ears, I mean the fact alone that Claudius is poisoned through the ear is major, but there aren't very many overlaps with The Revenger's Tragedy, but I would like something which would let me talk about ears!

That's true about women, but I guess loyalty/duty/betrayal have come up as separate questions and they're fairly similar

no don't get me wrong, there's plenty on ears, I mean the fact alone that Claudius is poisoned through the ear is major, but there aren't very many overlaps with The Revenger's Tragedy, but I would like something which would let me talk about ears!

Yeah ten seems like a good number. I've learnt the ones I'm doing off by heart (more or less) just because I wasn't sure what lines I would actually need, but Holy Thursday in Innocence is the hardest for some reason to remember!

What kind of questions are you hoping come up?

I've tried to learn a critic for each poem I've learnt, but it's kinda hurting my brain haha

I literally never write a conclusion which is probs bad, I will try to but I generally just try and make decent summary point at the end of my last paragraph. And thanks for the video link, I'll check it out!