An example of a basic error in analysis

Sample Essay 3: 'Tragedies portray societies which are caught between conflicting value systems.' Discuss with reference to one or more plays.

This is an extract from the essay:

'Hamlet finally kills himself to flee from the conflicting value systems that are around him. For example, the ghost of his father is telling him what to do and so is his mother. He also feels guilty about killing Polonius.'

Q. How could this be improved?

TUTOR'S REPLY

Hamlet does not kill himself in the play. You need to make sure that you are sufficiently familiar with the text(s) you are writing about to avoid making this kind of error. (It is possible that the student writing this essay is saying that at this point in the story Hamlet no longer seems to care about his life, which might be a valid observation - but if that is what they meant, they needed to express this in a much clearer fashion.)


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