Hamlet Flashcards
Revenge
Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras are all revengers, but Hamlet is the only one who struggles philosophically with the moral problems created by revenge.
Honour
Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras are all preoccupied with the honour of their families, especially their fathers. It drives them to seek revenge.
Madness
Hamlet’s ‘crafty madness’ (III.1.8) enables him to pursue revenge and comment satirically on the corruption of the court; Ophelia’s real madness is the consequence of grief.
Appearance and reality
The play suggests that appearances are deceptive; Claudius is a practised, smiling villain, while Gertrude is ‘seeming virtuous’ (I.5.46). Their righteous exteriors are cultivated to hide corruption.
Politics and power
A cynical politician, Claudius’s lust for power leads him to commit crimes against his family and the state; he believes the ends justify the means.
Historical
“Hamlet” was written at a time when there were a number of plots against Queen Elizabeth I, suggesting the vulnerability of the monarch.
Social
Gertrude and Ophelia are used as pawns, reflecting the relatively powerless position of women in patriarchal Renaissance society
Literary
“Hamlet” belongs to the genre of Revenge Tragedies, which were popular in Shakespeare’s day, but Hamlet is a more complex character than many Elizabethan revengers.
Philosophical
Claudius is a scheming, Machiavellian figure; Hamlet’s philosophical soliloquies reveal the humanist context of the play.
Cultural
“Hamlet” reveals Elizabethan attitudes and beliefs about both the importance of masculine honour and the supernatural.
Soliloquys
Hamlet’s soliloquies reveal a vibrant inner life. They detail his struggles with the burden of revenge and questions about life, death and morality.
Imagery
The most important images in the play are of disease, corruption and pollution. They can all be linked to Claudius’s fratricide and its consequences.
Mirroring
Key scenes and events mirror each other. The nunnery scene is mirrored by the closet scene and together they could be said to reveal Hamlet’s discomfort with female sexuality.
A play within a play
‘The Mousetrap’ serves several dramatic functions. It mirrors and foreshadows deaths that occur and highlights the themes of appearance and reality, and revenge.
The tragic ending
Laertes’s and Hamlet’s revenge plots are resolved in the final scene, and their deaths are framed by Fortinbras’s ‘revenge’: the capture of lands lost by his father.
Decode the question
Make sure you understand the question before you start writing. Highlight the key words and then use them to help you structure your essay.
Plan your answer
Make sure you haven’t got too many / too few ideas to cover in the time allowed. Plan which quotations to use before you start.
Stay focused on the task
Keep checking that what you are writing is relevant to the question set. One way of doing this is to use those key words or synonyms for them at regular intervals in your answer.
Read over your answer
Leave time to proofread your answer to ensure it makes sense and make any necessary corrections and additions.
Make sure your answer has a conclusion
Even if it’s only one or two sentences, close your essay with a concise but thoughtful comment that responds directly to the question.
