Hamlet Past Paper Question Help- Urgent!! (1 Viewer)

[Focus is Key]

I've been working on the following question:

For more than three centuries critical studies of Hamlet have challenged us with a range of perspectives from which we can read and understand the intense human relationships which are at the core of Hamlet.

What have you come to understand about the intense human relationships of Hamlet? How has this understanding been affected by the perspectives of others? In your response you should focus on 3 scenes in the play and a range of perspectives.

I need suggestions on some particular scenes/relationships to use. (I am already going to be using the closet scene (Act 3 Scene 4)).

What scenes would anyone recommend?

 

[yasminee96]

Can human relationships include relationships with consciousness etc? If so perhaps a soliloquy scene?

 

[shak99]

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_hnoZI_8mRIJconnorshamlet.weebly.com/uploads/7/8/6/7/7867305/intense_human_relationships_response_hamlet.doc+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au&client=firefox-a

Might help you with the question..

 

[Focus is Key]

Yeah I'm considering using the 'To be or not to be' or one of the others. I think it's a good idea!

 

[Focus is Key]

Thanks

 

[norwegianwood]

i did an assignment on a question similar to this.

i separated it into three types of intense human relationships:
1) relationships based on monarchal hierarchy: king hamlet (as a king) & hamlet, claudius (as a king) & hamlet, claudius (as a king) & rosencrantz/guildenstern, and then hamlet (as a prince) & the danish public.
2) emotional & dutiful familial relationships: hamlet & gertrude (as a mother), hamlet & king hamlet (as a father), hamlet & claudius (as an "uncle-father" etc), king hamlet and claudius (as brothers), and gertrude & claudius.
3) relationships based on gender, societal rank and positions in friendships: hamlet & gertrude (as a woman), hamlet & ophelia (as a woman), ophelia & polonius/laertes, and then hamlet & horatio/ophelia (who retain loyalty to him) contrasted against hamlet & rosencrantz/guildenstern (who don't remain loyal).

...it was a long essay

 

[Focus is Key]

Nice! That will go a long way I'm sure it was a long essay with all that!

 

[SuchSmallHands]

What about the scene in which Hamlet dies and Horatio bids him farewell ('goodnight sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to their rest or whatever). I always thought the Horatio/Hamlet relationship was one of unusual intensity for two men in Elizabethan England, it could be interesting to write about.

 

[bhsrepresent]

i thought the syllabus focused on your interpretation as opposed to other critical readings of Hamlet? this isn't something you could expect in the HSC right?

 

[bhsrepresent]

also I think you should look at the 'what a piece of work is man' scene with Rosencratz and Guildenstern - gives a pretty cynical view of human connections and is a good link if you're going to talk about nihilism or melancholy

 

[Focus is Key]

I'll check it out, thanks!

 

[OH1995]

It's a critical study, implying some form of critical interpretation. But if you don't want to have alternating viewpoints in your essay from different critics, just find one that has a similar argument to you and use it to augment your own interpretation.

 

[OH1995]

i did an assignment on a question similar to this.

i separated it into three types of intense human relationships:
1) relationships based on monarchal hierarchy: king hamlet (as a king) & hamlet, claudius (as a king) & hamlet, claudius (as a king) & rosencrantz/guildenstern, and then hamlet (as a prince) & the danish public.
2) emotional & dutiful familial relationships: hamlet & gertrude (as a mother), hamlet & king hamlet (as a father), hamlet & claudius (as an "uncle-father" etc), king hamlet and claudius (as brothers), and gertrude & claudius.
3) relationships based on gender, societal rank and positions in friendships: hamlet & gertrude (as a woman), hamlet & ophelia (as a woman), ophelia & polonius/laertes, and then hamlet & horatio/ophelia (who retain loyalty to him) contrasted against hamlet & rosencrantz/guildenstern (who don't remain loyal).

...it was a long essay

How did you go? Was is a hand-in or did you have to hand write it?

 

[Focus is Key]

Btw guys I finished my essay tonight Thanks guys, I feel like I've done a pretty good job of it!