Context
Students need to acknowledge that different people read texts differently and that these differences arise from variations in world view.
World view is a useful idea. It means exactly what it sounds like: it’s how someone sees the world. This is influenced by historical, social and cultural context. Think about how your text was received in its original context and how that is similar to, or different from, how it is read now.
For example: The idea of the Divine Right of Kings was very popular in Europe during Shakespeare’s time. This notion, that kings rule because God wants them to, could be one of the reasons that Hamlet hesitates to kill his uncle. To a modern audience this makes less sense (living as we do after the French and Russian revolutions) so we look for answers in Hamlet’s character or in his personal ethical code.
•The flourishing of Revenge Tragedy in Shakespeare's time was fuelled by the enormous changes taking place in Elizabethan and Jacobean society. His was an age characterised by turmoil and uncertainty.
•The division of the church in England divided the people into Catholics and Protestants. Religious doubt, albeit carefully disguised, was becoming more prevalent.
•Hamlet dramatically reflects this challenge to tradition, the political instability of his society and the religious questioning.
Medieval–renaissance–modern; feudalism–sceptism–humanism–individualism; old world moral absolutes–new world rational scepticism; religious certainties–inner doubt and psychological probing.
Humanism and notion of identity. Rational reason was the basis of Humanism and was the working philosophy of Shakespeare's time.
• Hamlet asks the questions, who am I? and what am I doing here?
World view is a useful idea. It means exactly what it sounds like: it’s how someone sees the world. This is influenced by historical, social and cultural context. Think about how your text was received in its original context and how that is similar to, or different from, how it is read now.
For example: The idea of the Divine Right of Kings was very popular in Europe during Shakespeare’s time. This notion, that kings rule because God wants them to, could be one of the reasons that Hamlet hesitates to kill his uncle. To a modern audience this makes less sense (living as we do after the French and Russian revolutions) so we look for answers in Hamlet’s character or in his personal ethical code.
•The flourishing of Revenge Tragedy in Shakespeare's time was fuelled by the enormous changes taking place in Elizabethan and Jacobean society. His was an age characterised by turmoil and uncertainty.
•The division of the church in England divided the people into Catholics and Protestants. Religious doubt, albeit carefully disguised, was becoming more prevalent.
•Hamlet dramatically reflects this challenge to tradition, the political instability of his society and the religious questioning.
Medieval–renaissance–modern; feudalism–sceptism–humanism–individualism; old world moral absolutes–new world rational scepticism; religious certainties–inner doubt and psychological probing.
Humanism and notion of identity. Rational reason was the basis of Humanism and was the working philosophy of Shakespeare's time.
• Hamlet asks the questions, who am I? and what am I doing here?