Hamlet Act I scene ii close reading analysis

A close reading and detailed analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet Act I scene ii, aimed at GCSE and A level students and teachers. It offers a brief but thorough background to Elizabethan theatre and Shakespeare’s use of language, the basic rhythm of iambic pentameter and the ways in which Shakespeare disrupts the rhythm for effect. There is a section on the structure within the plays, based on Nicholas Rowe’s 5 Act structure in 1709, but the main focus is on how Shakespeare creates drama throughout the play and how he explores various themes via dialectic argument.

Based on my almost 40 years teaching English Literature in various UK Secondary schools, the resource offers teachers and students a detailed understanding of this key scene in Hamlet - how Shakespeare uses poetic and rhetorical devices to build and develop motifs and key themes of the play; how Shakespeare uses duality in all its forms to create the conflict that generates the drama in his plays; how Shakespeare creates webs of words and interconnected ideas to reinforce themes, and to help the reader or audience to understand and appreciate the play.