Death in 'Hamlet'

Death in 'Hamlet'

1. AO2 (effects,language, quotations)

   • 'as kill a king'
   • The Ghost
   • Yorick's skull
   • 'All that lives must die, passing from nature to eternity'
   • 'To be or not to be'
   • 'bosom black as death'
   • 'Muddy death'
   • 'For in that sleep of death what dreams may come'
   • 'your father lost a father'

2. AO1 (understanding and terminology

   • Metaphor
   • Symbol
   • Death as a leveller
   • Plosives
   • Convention (of a tragedy)
   • Denouement
   • Foreshadowing
   • Subplot
   • Climax

3. AO5 (interpretations and criticism)

   • Thomas Robertson brings attention to the devastating impact of the death of Hamlet's father
   • Suicide and murder is a sin
   • Elements of Gothic literature

4. AO3 (context)

   • Shakespearean audiences would be religious
   • Hamnet (Shakespeare's son) died