Critical Approaches to Hamlet?! (1 Viewer)

[TQuadded]

I have been reading a lot of Hamlet and sample Hamlet essays and I notice that they say a lot of "Marxism", "existentialism", etc.

Are these critical approaches required to be mentioned in my essay? Why haven't my teachers said anything about these? They basically told us to write an essay as we normally would in Paper I Section III, but incorporate the question's requirements, e.g. mortality, appearance vs. reality, specific scenes, etc., therefore making us write a thesis that goes something like "Truths may be lies concealed from us by people who desire to hold power." (appearance vs. reality)

Some people, however, include the critical approaches I mentioned above in their thesis, and their whole essay revolves around these approaches.

Somebody please explain I'm freaking out.

 

[Absolutezero]

I have been reading a lot of Hamlet and sample Hamlet essays and I notice that they say a lot of "Marxism", "existentialism", etc.

Are these critical approaches required to be mentioned in my essay? Why haven't my teachers said anything about these? They basically told us to write an essay as we normally would in Paper I Section III, but incorporate the question's requirements, e.g. mortality, appearance vs. reality, specific scenes, etc., therefore making us write a thesis that goes something like "Truths may be lies concealed from us by people who desire to hold power." (appearance vs. reality)

Some people, however, include the critical approaches I mentioned above in their thesis, and their whole essay revolves around these approaches.

Somebody please explain I'm freaking out.

No, they're simply other ways to examine the text. Some students benefit from having a structural theory to base their arguments around. If you haven't studied these by now, don't worry about trying to incorporate them. Just focus on the topic addressed in the question, and support with evidence, techniques and quotes from the text.

 

[TQuadded]

No, they're simply other ways to examine the text. Some students benefit from having a structural theory to base their arguments around. If you haven't studied these by now, don't worry about trying to incorporate them. Just focus on the topic addressed in the question, and support with evidence, techniques and quotes from the text.

Thanks for a quick response. So you're saying that it just shows one's deeper understanding of the text, and depending on how they use it, it may yield them a boost in marks. However, it is not necessary, but may show that you haven't really 'critically' examined the text.

 

[Absolutezero]

Basically, yes. It can go either way. It can help if properly used, but tossing around words like Marxism and existentialism without applying them deeply to the text won't help.