Learners often find it difficult to link context to the analysis of the text (AO2).The following activities are designed to engage learners in using context to dig deeper into the text itself.

Select a quotation

'The time is out of joint. O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right.' (Act1 Sc 5 194-5)
Hamlet talking about the players: '..they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time..' (Act2 Sc2 529-30)

Based on the quotation fill in the bubbles with relevant context before comparing your ideas with the suggestions.

'out of joint' may be linked to the Divine Right of Kings

Various links could be made to Hamlet's Renaissance mindset.

'The time is out of joint. O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right.'

(Act1 Sc 5 194-5)

The idea of the 'body politic' may be linked to the joint metaphor

Context of genre: Hamlet feels the burden of revenge.

Could link to Elizabethan ideas about fate/ Medieval idea of the Wheel of Fortune

Based on the quotation fill in the bubbles with relevant context before comparing your ideas with the suggestions.

Could link specifically to Philip Sidney's ideas on Tragedy in 'Apology for Poetry'.

The nature of 'Tragedy' as a genre tended to focus on those in power and therefore the genre can be seen as inherently political and a commentary upon rulers of the time.

Hamlet talking about the players: '..they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time..'

(Act2 Sc2 529-30)

At the time professional theatre was a relatively new idea. Some critics see this 'newness' reflected in the 'self-conscious' or 'metatheatrical' elements of some of the plays.

Perhaps reflects the debate between those who saw the theatre as having a moral purpose and those who claimed that plays encouraged immorality by presenting bad behaviour