Examine Hamlet’s inner and outer conflict following the death of his father. Refer to the text in detail throughout your response.
Conflict
1. A state of open, often prolonged fighting; a battle or war.
2. A state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideas, or interests; a clash.
3. Psychology A psychic struggle, often unconscious, resulting from the opposition or simultaneous functioning of mutually exclusive impulses, desires, or tendencies.
4. Opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially opposition that motivates or shapes the action of the plot
Psychological conflict
A turning point during which the individual struggles to attain some psychological strength. Sometimes referred to as a psychosocial crisis, this can be a time of both vulnerability and strength, as the individual works toward success or failure.
You must plan your essay carefully. Work through the set sections and make notes on how CONFLICT features in each.
Act 1, Scene 2
Conflict (examples);
•Hamlet’s inner depression following the death of his father- battle to get through.
•Hamlet’s conflict with Gertrude and Claudius- marriage
•Hamlet’s conflict with Gertrude and Claudius- attitude to Hamlet’s father’s death/ bereavement
•Claudius’ attempt to challenge Hamlet’s depression and the impact of this on Hamlet
•Hamlet’s words and what these reveal about his conflicted state of mind
•Falseness (Claudius/ Gertrude/ the court of Denmark) versus ‘truth’ (Hamlet)
•Hamlet’s reactions to his mother and Claudius
Technical aspects (examples);
•Claudius’ choice of words to describe Hamlet and its effect/ what is shows
•Hamlet’s use of an aside and its effect/ what it shows
•Visual imagery to describe depression and its effect
•repetition
•negative sounding words/ phrases
•rhetorical questions
Hamlet essay: Criteria for a high grade;
•detailed reference to text
•thorough and thoughtful discussion of characters and relationships
•look ‘beneath the surface’ of the text and consider alternative meanings
•Examination of the attitudes and motives of characters
•handle the text with confidence
•have a clear understanding of the plot and characters
•get ideas across confidently with carefully analyses quotations to back up ideas
•Understand how Shakespeare gets ideas, themes, and settings across to the reader and undertstand the effect this has on the reader
•Organise ideas clearly
•How writers use language to achieve specific effects
•anayse and discuss how meanings, ideas, and feeling are put across to the reader through language, structure and form (specific words/ phrases/ adjectives/ verbs/ adverbs/ punctuation/ sentence length/ paragraph length etc)
•Discussion of techniques such as metaphor and simile- detailed discussion of why they have been used/ their effect
•an understanding of the effect of soliloquies in Shakespeare’s plays
•Detailed discussion of Hamlet’s soliloquies and what we learn about Hamlet’s frame of mind through this
