RnG/Hamlet help (1 Viewer)

[blink rock]

Just after some last minute notes for cramming before the exam the transformations exam!!!
Is anyone able to refresh my memory regarding the meaning of iambic pentameter???? i know i have done it i just didnt really understand!!!!
also i understand that in the transformations essay i need to discuss the context of the two plays (historical, social and religious). How important is this up against the transformation of the characters? which should take priority in regards to relevance?? i have never really understood this topic, it is my worst and am not not looking forward too it!!!

goodluck in trials everyone!!!! 1 down, 6 to go!!!!

 

[!lukey!]

cant really help u with pentameter except that pent means five lol

the context of the two plays has influenced the difference in the themes and characters. Elizabethan - time of certainty, 60's time of uncertainty and it is reflected in both plays

 

[!lukey!]

- ive always thought of the context of the play influencing the transformation as the major points of the studying of the two texts

 

[glitterfairy]

Just after some last minute notes for cramming before the exam the transformations exam!!!
Is anyone able to refresh my memory regarding the meaning of iambic pentameter???? i know i have done it i just didnt really understand!!!!
also i understand that in the transformations essay i need to discuss the context of the two plays (historical, social and religious). How important is this up against the transformation of the characters? which should take priority in regards to relevance?? i have never really understood this topic, it is my worst and am not not looking forward too it!!!

goodluck in trials everyone!!!! 1 down, 6 to go!!!!

Iambic pentameter is traditional. Not only that, but Hamlet is the only character who speaks in prose - subtely distancing himself from the others as a "Novos Homo" (I think, my latin is non-existant) - a new man.

This was also my weakest module last year Will try to help as much as I can though.

Changing historical contexts is pretty fantastic if you look at say, feminist attitudes over the last few hundred years. In Hamlet's day, we'd be like yeah, fine. But today, we'd be screaming out that Hamlet is an insecure boy who need to grow up a bit more, and how Ophelia should stay away and start making her own decisions etc etc, date more secure guys etc.

The big thing with context is that it affects how the play is viewed. There are some things in Hamlet, and indeed, all of shakespeare's work that is so typically Elizabethan (check out the 7 elements of Jacobean Tragedy, for example). However there are also some truly universal, timeless elements that can be applied in roughly the same way to any context.

Does that help?