Example 1
Essay question: 'Elizabethan tragedy shifts the emphasis of guilt away from the individual to those around him.' Discuss.
In answering this question, the student writes an essay on the theme of guilt in Hamlet, listing the possible ways in which the main characters of the play can be seen as 'guilty'.
Q. How could this be improved?
TUTOR'S REPLY
This interpretation of the essay question doesn’t adequately identify the critical issues which are being highlighted by the question. The student only looks at the how characters in the play are 'guilty', and does not broaden this out to try and evaluate the validity of the statement that 'Elizabethan tragedy shifts the emphasis of guilt away from the individual to those around him'.
A possible and more productive rewording of the essay title might be as follows:
'How far does Elizabethan tragedy differ from previous models of tragedy in terms of the blame/guilt attributed to the figure at the centre of the action? Is the individual responsible for their tragedy, or is it rather the responsibility of those around them?'
The question might then be broken down in the following way:
Example 2
Essay question: 'The introduction of the players and the discussion of the theatre reflect a major thematic concern of Hamlet'. Discuss.
The following extract comes from a student essay on the above question. In their essay, the student essay considers the theatre as being in itself a major theme within Hamlet, discussing how Shakespeare comments on the contemporary theatre through particular scenes:
'The players arrive out of the blue, yet their arrival is a lucky outcome for both Shakespeare and Hamlet. It enables Shakespeare to make some contemporary comments about the theatre. As a writer of plays, the theatre and actors were important to him. In Hamlet, we see many comments about these topics - and so the theatre becomes a definite thematic concern. These comments on the nature of the theatre at the time, may or may not be the opinions of Shakespeare himself, making them a personal issue - but they are dwelt on considerably, and they are expressed with such strong sentiment which certainly makes them an important issue of the play.'
Q. How could this be improved?
TUTOR'S REPLY
In working out what the essay question means, the student takes the word 'reflect' to mean 'constitutes', and writes an essay looking at how the theatre is in itself a major theme within Hamlet. The essayist fails to recognise how the discussion of acting, theatrics, playing a role and so forth relates to one of the most important themes that runs throughout the entire play, namely that of 'seeming' as opposed to 'being', outward appearance versus reality. Although the theatre is a subject that Shakespeare does comment on in these sections of the play, it would probably be pushing it too far to claim that a discussion of the nature of the Renaissance theatre is one of the primary thematic concerns of Hamlet. In any case, such an answer would belong to a different essay question. This example shows that essay questions can be worded in subtle ways, and highlights the importance of reading the question very carefully. A single word in the question (in this instance, "reflects") might be of total significance.
Example 3
Essay question: 'Hamlet, and perhaps Hamlet, is obsessed with female sexuality'. Do you agree that this is a mainspring of the tragedy?
In this essay, the student focusses on Hamlet the character’s possible 'obsession' with female sexuality, looking at his relationships with Gertrude and Ophelia.
Q. How could this be improved?
TUTOR'S REPLY
The essay only answers one part of the question and ignores the other. The essay question introduces two ideas which must be considered, although it may not be necessary to devote equal amounts of attention to each:
- how can Hamlet (the character) be seen to be 'obsessed' with female sexuality?
- is this "obsession" a central cause of the play’s tragic outcome?
- in what ways can Hamlet (the play) be seen to be 'obsessed' with female sexuality? How do themes of sex and sexuality appear in the play, other than in Hamlet’s relationships with Gertrude and Ophelia? (e.g. in the language of the play, interactions of other characters, etc.) What effect(s) does this have? Is it possible that the whole society that the play depicts is in some way 'obsessed' with female sexuality, and that 'obsession' sets the conditions for the tragedy?
