Anyone else doing WJEC English Literature LT4 this Friday 6 June 2014?

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Reply 20

AmaleeA

I'm doing Blake and Tempest & Dr Faustus - struggling with unseen poetry. Any tips?

Reply 21

white-tea-shirt

Original post by jomita

im doing blake poetry and for drama hamlet and the revenger's tragedy? i dont think its on appearance and reality as that came up last year but it might be reworded this year, im going to revise corruption, decay, mortality and women (and maybe crime and punishment), what does everyone else think will come up???? and fyi poetry questions make me want to die i had a look at the past papers and theres only two that i would actually feel confortable doing!! feel really anxious about blake

Im doing the same book but i find Hamlet really hard

Reply 22

Glesni

Im doing King lear/ Oedipus Rex and then Wife of Bath for the poem part. I'm also quite worried about the unseen poem and the WoB section! :/

Reply 23

jomita

Original post by white-tea-shirt

Im doing the same book but i find Hamlet really hard

Dunno if this a stupid digestion but have you got that revision guide it goes through the scenes and important quotes in detail and as far as themes type Jamie tuohy hamlet into google he does a blog about hamlet themes, found it a few days and it's been really helpful when understanding themes

Reply 24

white-tea-shirt

Original post by jomita

Thanks i'll defo check that out today
And It's also useful to youtube- 'John green Hamlet crash course'
You'll get a lot of good points

Reply 25

PippaKate

I'm doing Blake for poetry and Hamlet/Revengers Tragedy for the play. I've managed to memorise 9 poems so far, but feel so unprepared for Hamlet! I've made a list of quotes but i'm most concerned with context, does anyone know any useful hamlet context related things? Would be a big help!

Reply 26

hervuk0

Doing Donne and Lear/Oedipus and I'm so panicked, I'm not worried about my knowledge but the more good essays I read the more I worry about constructing a good essay with no "waffling"- any tips?

Reply 27

Vonstaaa

I'm doing Dr Faustus & Tempest and Wife of Bath. Struggling to know which important quotes to pick, ones that are fairly generic/able to be incorporated into different themes but not too generic that it has no relation to the theme :L

Reply 28

emla001

Original post by jomita

For Hamlet and RT, in a revision session this morning at coll we discussed potential questions: mortality, intelligence, temptation, acting, metatheatricality, youth vs age, madness, and control. We just briefly outlined plans for each one.
As far as poetry questions are concerned, I think as long as you know a range of poems covering different themes/presentations and you know poetic devices for each one (AO1) AND WHAT EFFECT THEY HAVE (AO2), it's quite easy to twist the question to say what YOU what to say/argue using the poems you know.

Hope i've helped a little bit! :smile:

Reply 29

Amé

Has anyone got any context for the Wife of Bath? I have the obvious things such as the stereotype of women at the time not applying etc.. lots of Biblical references; Seint Jerome.. And also mentioning of the Tale of Florent and The Wedding of Sir Gawain & Dame Ragnelle.
All forms of context will help me, so please do, haha.

Reply 30

aliyah08

Does anyone have quotes on the theme of Corruption in measure for measure? I'm struggling to gather my thoughts!

Thanks!

Reply 31

Amé

Original post by aliyah08

Does anyone have quotes on the theme of Corruption in measure for measure? I'm struggling to gather my thoughts!

Thanks!

"My false o'er weighs your true"- Angelo
"Let's write good angel on the devil's horns"- Angelo
"Hence shall we see, if power changes purpose, what our seemers be"- Duke
"I have purchased many diseases under her roof"- Lucio (in ref. Mistress Overdone's brothel)
"Liberty plucks justice by the nose... The baby beats the nurse"- Duke
"Is there no charity in sin?"- Angelo
"Some rise by sin, some by virtue fall."- Escalus

Of course there are much more! I find it easier to remember the quotes that cover several themes!

Reply 32

Bella101

Does anyone have any predictions for the questions for Tempest/Faustus and Blake tomorrow?

Reply 33

sasasasasasas

ive got king lear, then have to compare wife of bath with volpone
jesus christ can anyone help with this comparison??

how do i compare volpone and wife of bath is anyone else doing it?? :frown:

Reply 34

caryswww

Does anyone have any memorable critics? I have quite a few for Blake, but only one or two for Lear/Oedipus..any help appreciated!

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Reply 35

laurarosejenk

I list different types of readings. E.g Freudian Marxist Christian feminist ect

Reply 36

aliyah08

Original post by Amé

Thank you so much. I really appreciate that!
Me too, do you think if we got a question on corruption you could talk about political/sexual corruption and so on etcetc because I already have quotes on some relevant themes

Reply 37

LibbyMae

Original post by caryswww

Does anyone have any memorable critics? I have quite a few for Blake, but only one or two for Lear/Oedipus..any help appreciated!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Super easy one to remember is Charles Lamb regarding Lear: "We want to take him in and shelter him". I suppose you could remember this one because it is "Lamb" speaking, and who the hell wouldn't want to take a cute lamb in and shelter it.

Granville-Barker describes "two Lears" - the "old man" and the "titan".

Shlegel describes the trajectory of King Lear as "a fall from the highest elevation to the deepest abyss of misery"

Bradley states that "Lear dies in an ecstasy", and that he undergoes a "spiritual development through suffering"

Jan Kott claims that, in Lear, "the grotesque is more cruel than the tragedy"

Dollimore states that King Lear is a play about "power, property and inheritance"

Those are probably the easiest to remember, and you have most bases covered there.

I'm doing Blake too! Any good critics?

Reply 38

LibbyMae

Original post by AmaleeA

I'm doing Blake and Tempest & Dr Faustus - struggling with unseen poetry. Any tips?

Hi, I'm doing Blake too. Personally, I always read the questions first several times each. They may all look overwhelming at first, but often after a couple of times reading them all, it's easy to see what the examiner is "getting at" beneath the fancy wording. From that stage, you then have a clear idea of order of preference for each question, and what poems fit the issue raised in your favourite question suitably. I would then go on the unseen poetry, and speed-read each one; at this point it should become obvious which one or two definitely don't correlate with both Blake AND the question. Then go back over the other poems, and try to see direct links with Blake's works, jotting down relevant quotations as you go when they are fresh in your mind. After this stage it should be fairly clear which poem you will find easiest to write about. Then, before you go ahead with your essay plan, make sure that the poem can definitely relate to the question, so as to prevent yourself from getting side-tracked whilst writing the essay. Hope this helps.

Reply 39

white-tea-shirt

Original post by PippaKate

POINT 1 - Totalitarian state
Hamlet is being watched by everyone -

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Gertrude and Claudius who think he's mad

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Polonius who gets stabbed

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Ophelia who Hamlet knows is spying on her

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And his friends who he has killed

Here's where context comes in.

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This reflects Elizabethan england.

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It was a totalitarian state / a spy state.

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It could have been a criticism of this fact - having the play set in Denmark keeps Shakespeare safe - he can't get done for treason

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Sir Francis Walsingham was secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster".

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Walsingham is principally remembered for his part in the trial and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. - Perhaps this is similar to Claudius having another king killed (regicide).

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Sir Francis Walsingham could also be equated to the role of Polonius

POINT 2 - The Divine Right of Kings

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Another important fact is the "Divine right of Kings"

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This is the idea that King's were ordained by God and specially elected to be in that position

Why is this important ?

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It had a great part to play in Hamlet killing Claudius - if he was ordained by God, Hamlet would be damned if he killed him. It's a significant part of his delay ****(What makes hamlet such a famous tragedy and THE ONLY SHAKESPEARE PLAY TO BE CONSTANTLY PERFORMED SINCE IT WAS MADE [THIS IS FURTHER CONTEXT])***

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The fact that Kings and Queens ruled by divine right is also criticsed by Shakespeare - The audience would be provoked into thinking if this was true if Claudius is such an "Incestuous, murderous, damned dane".

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Once again, having the play set in Denmark keeps Shakespeare safe - he can't get done for treason

POINT 3+4 - GHOSTS + Classical tragedies

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The ghost -Should hamlet trust it or not

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In elizabethan England people did believe in ghosts - but like Hamlet it was believed they could be evil

Interlude

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It could also show the perpetual cycle of violence at the heart of revenge tragedies in Greek revenge tragedies - the desire for vengeance corrupts the revenger and he or she has to die too ! Each death is answered for by another death!

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Critic - According to Francis Bacon [a Renaissance man] this is because "wild revenge" consists of "private" reasons which never has a good outcome !

Back to the ghost -

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It can be seen as a symbol for the perpetual cycle of revenge

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Critic; Nicholas Royle, and English Novelist said ghosts are the "very embodiment of strange repetition or re-occurrence, it's a revenant, it comes back"

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So the ghost can be seen as a symbol for something very significant in revenge tragedies - it raises questions about re-occurance, the perpetual cycle of revenge and death, the fact that the revenger will die, and that evil can triumph over good !

Point 5 - Random family stuff

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Like Henry VIII who married Catherine of aragon, Claudius also married his dead brothers wife - this was frowned upon etc etc

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Ophelia was lectured by Laertes her brother and she told him to behave in the same way BUT - when Polonius, her father gives her orders she merely says "I will obey"

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Gertrude married the King - it was a "o'er hasty marriage" - was this because she loved him or becomes of survival and self preservation ? Some critics argue if she was no longer married to the king she would kind of be pushed aside

Point 6 - Hamlet's Delay
As I said before - "What makes hamlet such a famous tragedy and THE ONLY SHAKESPEARE PLAY TO BE CONSTANTLY PERFORMED SINCE IT WAS MADE" is his delay.
In the original Hamlet by Saxo Grammaticus, Prince Hamlet only delays before killing the king because he's too young and weak

HOWEVER

This isn't the case for Shakespeare's prince hamlet.

That means Hamlet's reasons for delaying show what's important to Shakespeare - this includes:
---Divine judgement / heaven and hell
---Are humans fit to carry out justice?
---Was the ghost a demon? Was it even telling the truth?
---If Hamlet killed claudius when he was killing he thought he would go to heaven, it would not truly be revenege
---If Hamlet kills the king, could that lead to him also being killed when he becomes king ?

In the end it's almost about a tragedy about a man who doesn't want to engage with life so he doesn't get anything wrong - he doesnt want to be involved in life at all, hence why he said "To be, or not to be"

POINT 7 - Harmatia
Hamartia is usually translated as a mistake or error in judgment. In modern discussions of tragedy, hamartia has often been described as a hero's "tragic flaw.
Hamlet's error of judgement as a revenger is his delay.
As I said before "he doesnt want to be involved in life at all, hence why he said "To be, or not to be""
Because when he does, he really get's his hands dirty.

I mean when he kills polonius he comes both and avenger and a villain - he has a dual role.
He has the same role in this subplot as Claudius in the main plot - here's what i mean.
King Hamlet (victim) killed by Claudius (Murderer) and Hamlet is the Revenger
Polonius (victim and father) killed by Hamlet (Murderer) and Laertes is the revenger

Hamlet becomes what he hates !
He doesn't want to be taken over by revenge - this is his harmatia.

This was good revision for me so I'll write more if i remember more. I'm going to do Blake for now. Excuse any spelling mistakes v