Missing ones

Question 6

‘Claudius is both a capable ruler and a deeply flawed man.’

In the light of this statement, explore Shakespeare’s presentation of Claudius in Hamlet.
In your answer, you must consider relevant contextual factors.
(Total for Question 6 = 25 marks)

Hamlet

Candidates may refer to the following in their answers:

  • the complexity of Claudius’s characterisation as both a politically astute ruler and morally corrupt murderer; his duality as king and man in response to the terms of the task

  • specific scenes or moments such as Claudius’s first speech to the court (Act 1 Scene 2) presenting statesmanship; his aside (“O, my offence is rank”) revealing guilt; his manipulation of Laertes; and his schemes against Hamlet culminating in his downfall

  • ways in which Claudius’s capability is established through rhetoric, diplomacy, and control of public image, while his flaws emerge through religious imagery, confession, and hypocrisy

  • the contrast between Claudius’s political strength and moral weakness; his concern for stability vs. the chaos his ambition causes

  • contextual factors, including Elizabethan beliefs about the Divine Right of Kings, sin and damnation, and the political dangers of usurpation

  • how Claudius’s rule reflects Machiavellian politics, showing Renaissance anxieties about power, legitimacy, and deception

  • the genre of revenge tragedy and Claudius’s role as both villain and tragic figure, reflecting on human frailty and conscience

  • different interpretations, e.g.

    • moral/religious readings seeing Claudius as damned for regicide and fratricide

    • political or historicist readings viewing him as a shrewd survivor maintaining Denmark’s order

    • psychoanalytic readings exploring his guilt and fear as expressions of repressed desire and self-awareness

    • performance-based interpretations that might present Claudius sympathetically or as coldly pragmatic, depending on directorial emphasis

These are suggestions only. Accept any valid alternative responses.

Question 5

‘In Hamlet, private thoughts often conflict with public duty.’

In the light of this statement, explore the ways in which Shakespeare presents the conflict between personal conscience and public responsibility.
In your answer, you must consider relevant contextual factors.
(Total for Question 5 = 25 marks)

Hamlet

Candidates may refer to the following in their answers:

  • the central conflict between inward reflection and outward action, focusing on Hamlet’s moral hesitation and his struggle to reconcile personal conscience with filial and social duty

  • specific scenes or moments such as:

    • Hamlet’s “O that this too too solid flesh would melt” soliloquy revealing private despair;

    • his “To be or not to be” soliloquy exploring moral self-debate;

    • the prayer scene (Claudius’s confession) revealing conscience vs. kingship;

    • Fortinbras’s march contrasting decisive public duty with Hamlet’s indecision;

    • Gertrude’s or Laertes’s moments of personal conflict between loyalty and morality

  • ways in which Shakespeare presents this tension through soliloquy, contrast, imagery of disease and corruption, and religious allusion

  • the play’s Elizabethan moral and religious context: notions of divine justice, the afterlife, sin, and the duty of a prince or son within a hierarchical world

  • the genre of tragedy, where private emotion collides with public expectation, leading to paralysis and downfall

  • how this conflict underpins the play’s themes of surveillance, deception, and appearance versus reality

  • different interpretations, e.g.

    • existential readings seeing Hamlet as representative of the modern self torn between thought and action

    • religious readings examining conscience, repentance, and divine law

    • historicist perspectives linking the dilemma to Renaissance debates about kingship, duty, and humanism

    • psychoanalytic readings exploring Hamlet’s internalised conflict and guilt as psychological paralysis

    • performance approaches emphasising soliloquies as moments of psychological exposure versus public masks

These are suggestions only. Accept any valid alternative responses.

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