Further Details
This is how the Commentary works .
It explores what’s ‘really’ happening in each scene –
what the situation is, why the characters are speaking and behaving the way
they are, and where the play is going.
More importantly, it asks why Shakespeare is
making things happen in that particular way.
It draws your attention to the kind of things you will be expected to say about individual passages in the Oral Commentary part of the IB Diploma course, and in response to written commentary questions in A Level exams and AP textual analysis questions. It also includes sample commentary questions and a model commentary.
It explains the troublesome words and ideas when they are especially important or interesting.
It's set up to be used side by side with your own copy
of the play. Line references are given in the margin of the Commentary to make it easier for you to move from one to
the other. (References differ from one edition of the play to another, but not
by very much.)
The Overview section for each scene lists other,
broader points of interest, under useful headings which will help you when you
come to revise.
The Student Response sections record some of the things students have said about the play and about the issues raised by it.
All the way through the Commentary essay questions are used as a way of exploring the play further, and also as a means of encouraging you to think about Hamlet not just as an exam text but as a piece of working theatre.
Quotations, line references and essay questions are colour-coded throughout.