Critical Study of a Text: Hamlet (Revision)

These are the end days! As the old syllabus hurtles towards its inevitable demise a new one waits just over the hill for its moment of dawning. English faculties all over NSW are busy securing class sets of new prescribed texts and creatively funneling old prescriptions into the junior years to cut down on expenses. As our bookrooms shift and re-arrange themselves like cities collapsing into new shapes under the exertion of tectonics, the dust begins to clear and a single, lone gem can be seen shining in the rubble.  

Hamlet.

The most discussed text ever written, the ur-character piece, the most coveted stage role of the 19th and 20th centuries, the single greatest play by the single greatest playwright. The very text that gives credence to the idea of a literary canon.

It has floated from syllabus to syllabus, ever-present but sometimes less obviously so than at other times. Most recently it was one of the cornerstones of Advanced English Module B: Critical Study of a Text, but as of next year this will no longer be the case. In 2019, Hamlet will move to one of the Extension English 1 electives.

It's a move that will mean two things:

• Recent PL sessions run by the ETA (and associated discussions online) suggest that the most popular English Extension 1 elective will be 'Worlds of Upheaval'. Very few seem interested in teaching Literary Mindscapes (the Hamlet option) so Shakespeare's relegation to this section of the Extension syllabus means that its probably not a text we'll be seeing in Year 12 much.
• The rules around Prescribed texts prohibit any of the Year 12 texts from being taught at a Year 11 level, so Hamlet's inclusion in this obscure part of the Senior English syllabuses means that it also can't even be used in Preliminary as a preparatory text.

I think this is a little sad. The vast majority of NSW senior students won't get to experience Hamlet over the course of the next five years (at least). Ah, Hamlet, I knew him well...

Anyway! Attached here are the revision notes that I used with my Year 12 Advanced English class last year. This follows the same format as other Year 12 Advanced English revisions notes I've previously uploaded (Discovery, Metropolis and Nineteen Eighty-Four, and W.H. Auden). Notable quotes are accompanied by some general analysis designed to model different ways of interpreting and connecting textual examples to themes and context.

Here it is: Module B: Critical Study of a Text - Hamlet

In addition to the above analysis here is an overview of techniques and aspects of the text related to themes / the rubric / context. These are as follows:

Techniques

• Foreshadowing
• Characterisation - particularly in reference to Shakespeare's use of foils (there are two in Hamlet!)
• Antithesis
• Hendiadys (if there was ever a time to talk about this literary device it's with Hamlet, which probably uses this technique more than any other text).
• Metaphor
• Motif
• Mockery
• Repetition
• Rhythm - Iambic Pentameter, and disruption to.
• Imagery
• Zoomorphia
• Hyperbole
• Bombast and bombastic language
• Puns, alliteration, and other forms of wordplay
• Rhetoric
• Soliloquy
• Verse vs. Prose
• Dramatic Irony 

Aspects of the Text / Context

• Gender - perspectives of the masculine and feminine
• The Great Chain of Being
• Elizabethan anxieties/concerns related to succession, corruption, etc. 
• Appearance vs. reality
• The old world of chivalry vs. the new world of subterfuge
• Protestantism
• Existentialism and Mortality
• Purgatory and its relevance in Shakespeare's society
• The Renaissance
• Tyrannicide - philosophical arguments for and against in regards to Hamlet
• Universalism
• Sovereignty 
• Humanism
• The influence of the new 16th genre 'the essay' on Shakespeare's Hamlet
• Hamlet's adherence to the tragedy genre
• The role of consanguinity in regards to character dynamics in the play

Further reading:

Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet