Comparative Perspectives (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note

• Hamlet is the individual seeking vengeance for his father’s murder in a corrupt Danish court:

  • His struggle with his own morality and identity is set against the political machinations of his world

• Winston Smith must resist the oppressive society in which he finds himself:

  • He must fight for his individuality against indoctrination and state-sanctioned oppression

• In the context of Hamlet, patriarchal authority, familial duty, and personal honour dictate the social norms

• The disorder created by regicide is set against religious ethics, personal duty, and ambition for power

• In the context of 1984, loyalty to the “Party” and conformity dictate the social norms:

  • Individuality, free thought, and personal agency must be relinquished

• The marriage of Hamlet’s mother Gertrude to Claudius can be interpreted in terms of the society’s limited female agency:

  • This creates a dilemma for Hamlet who turns against his mother and Ophelia

• Ophelia and Gertrude are pawns for political agenda:

  • Their passivity leads to their demise 

• Sexual desire and love is taboo in a society under oppressive control 

• Sexual intercourse is acceptable only as a means of procreation:

  • Julia views sex as a form of resistance

  • Her romance with Winston goes against the “Party” rules

• Hamlet must avenge his father’s murder while maintaining his moral code: 

  • His indecision about his own moral ethics leads to inner turmoil

  • He feigns insanity to investigate the crime

• His troubled relationship with Ophelia, and his mistreatment of her, leads to her death:

  • In Act 5, his grief-stricken state is mistaken for madness

• Winston’s attempt to resist the oppressive society leads to paranoia:

  • His desire for reason and free thought is presented as admirable yet naive

• His sense of powerlessness can be understood as fatalism:

  • When he is arrested and tortured, he submits

• Hamlet’s choice to act (to “take up arms” against a “sea of troubles”) is where his resistance lies:

• He is uncertain whether to believe the ghost and delays killing Claudius

• Later, his rash decisions lead to tragedy

• His actions lead, ultimately, to the deaths of Claudius, his mother, the Polonius family (including Ophelia), and his own

• Winston’s resistance comes, particularly, via continued free expression

• He writes his rebellious thoughts in diaries, remembers the past as it was (in contrast to the rewriting of it), conducts an illicit relationship, and joins the “Brotherhood”

• However, his attempts to find reason and logic in an absurd world fails 

• Hamlet fights for justice in a corrupted political court

• His own moral ethics are tested

• Winston Smith struggles to maintain personal agency under a totalitarian regime

• Shakespeare exposes the restrictive social structures of 16th-century society:

  • In particular, he explores succession, familial honour, and patriarchal norms

• Orwell’s novel is a warning against authoritarian power 

• The novel explores the dangers of allowing technology and information to be used as tools of oppression

• Orwell examines the impact  of a passive majority on individuals 

• The play was received as a revenge tragedy and morality play

• Early intеrprеtations of the play considered it in terms of religious and political thеmеs

• Thеmеs of usurpation, regicide, succession, and the moral responsibilities of lеadеrs rеsonatеd with thе political climatе of thе timе

• The novel was well-received in Europe, although it was considered frightening

• Some critics considered it  instructional and patriotic

• Although fellow dystopian author Aldous Huxley praised the novel, he disagreed with Orwell’s version of the future, believing it naïve 

• The audience understands character relationships through dialogue:

  • Dialogue reveals plotting, betrayals, and secrecy, highlighting the ill-ease in court

• Hamlet's soliloquies are particularly effective in depicting his inner turmoil, raising themes of morality and religion 

• Orwell adopts a third-person limited perspective

• This reveals Winston’s thoughts and feelings while highlighting his vulnerable and isolated position:

  • The limited perspective creates a claustrophobia that reflects Winston’s environment and his state of mind

• Occasionally, an omniscient narrator offers political critique

• “Elsinore Castle”, a fictional representation of a Danish castle, raises themes of familial duty and political corruption

• The graveyard, where Hamlet delivers his powerful soliloquy about life and death, creates dramatic effect and emphasises the play's dark themes 

• Orwell's setting is a fictional dystopian world in the near future 

• The city is under constant surveillance: 

  • The “Telescreen” and large posters of “Big Brother” dominate 

• Winston's apartment is dilapidated, highlighting a failing state

• Through the character’s actions and dialogue, Shakespeare allows audiences to form their own interpretations 

• Hamlet's fatal flaw is revealed via soliloquies

• His dialogue with Ophelia, particularly, presents him as a flawed character 

• Winston's journal entries build characterisation as readers hear his thoughts

• Often, readers know more about Winston than he knows about himself 

• Orwell assumes a gloomy perspective in narration describing Winston 

• Dialogue reveals hints about characters such as O’Brien that Winston fails to notice

• Allusions to Greek mythology are typical of Shakespeare's tragedies

• A morality play, its characters allude to saints and biblical figures

• Allusions to fairy tales and nursery rhymes offer a glimpse into the past 

• The novel alludes to Roman emperors and persecuted Christians

• Poison and skulls are symbolic of death and betrayal

• Metaphors relating to rot symbolise political corruption in the court

• The ghost of Hamlet’s father can be interpreted as symbolic of tensions between supernatural forces and morality        

• The “Telescreen” symbolises  futuristic technological surveillance

• This contrasts with the “glass paperweight”, a symbol of intellectualism and the beauty of the past

• References to metal and the “iron voice” symbolise the unnatural dystopian world

• Hamlet struggles against corruption, which he considers unnatural behaviour: “’Tis an unweeded garden / That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature…”

• Hamlet’s inner conflict comes from his frustration with disorder: "The time is out of joint. O cursed spite, / That ever I was born to set it right!” 

• Winston is aware of the futility of his rebellion, yet he struggles against oppression to maintain his integrity: “In this game that we’re playing, we can’t win. Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds, that’s all”

• Winston struggles to keep truth alive for future generations:

  • He tells Julia of his aims: “small groups of people banding themselves together, and gradually growing, and even leaving a few records behind”

• Hamlet is a tragic hero, caught between his moral ethics and his cultural heritage:

  • As a prince, he believes it is a matter of honour to seek vengeance for his father’s murder

  • He feels the need to correct the disorder created by regicide

  • In his Christian society, he struggles against supernatural forces

• Okonkwe, as Achebe’s tragic hero, rails against changes in his Igbo village:

  • He fights to maintain cultural traditions against British imperialism 

  • He believes it is his duty to resist colonial influence

• The play, a Shakespearean tragedy, introduces Hamlet as a noble man of high status

• The rising action reveals Hamlet’s hamartia: his hesitation to act as a result of moral ambiguities 

• Hamlet’s doomed fate is set in stone when he makes an irreversible decision:

  • He submits to the very violence and deceit he wishes to resist

• The tragedy ends in, not only his death, but the death of the entire court

• While the play is set in Nigeria as British imperialism extends to Africa, Things Fall Apart follows a tragic structure

• Okonkwe, the tragic hero, is introduced as a popular and wealthy farmer

• His hamartia is his excessive pride and resistance to advice

• His doomed fate is the result of several poor decisions that isolate him

• The tragedy ends with his dishonourable suicide and the destruction of Igbo culture under British rule

• As a result of Hamlet’s cultural heritage, he faces conflicts between religious and moral ethics, patriarchal values, and regicide:

• Conflicts arise within his family and his love, Ophelia 

• Okonkwo’s rigid beliefs in his cultural heritage, specifically hyper-masculinity and Igbo tradition, are tested

• His inflexibility and strong-mindedness create conflicts with his own community and family 

• Shakespeare explores ideas about regicide, the Divine Right of Kings, and familial honour

• Further, Shakespeare examines religious tensions reflective of Catholic/Protestant clashes as well as beliefs in the supernatural

• Achebe depicts the collapse of the Igbo culture as a result of foreign colonial influence

• Achebe draws attention to the way Igbo belief systems change as a result of Christian missionaries

• The novel depicts the impact of differing cultures coming together

• The play was received as a revenge tragedy and a morality play

• A Renaissance audience would understand it in terms of its exploration of the complexities of human grief and existential doubt 

• The play rеsonatеd with thе unstable and, often violent, 16th-century political climatе 

• Hamlet remains one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies

• Things Fall Apart was a departure from novels about Africa written from European and Western perspectives 

• Many critics praised Achebe's writing style

• Others were unsettled by his portrayal of missionaries and British colonialism

• The novel went on to sell over ten million copies and was translated into over fifty languages

• It remains a seminal work in universities and schools worldwide

• The audience understands cultural perspectives through dialogue:

  • For example, Claudius’ ambitions and Ophelia’s limited agency

• Hamlet's soliloquies reveal religious attitudes and tensions with supernatural forces

• Achebe’s omniscient narrator reflects African oral tradition:

  • He tells the story 

• The neutral narrator presents different character’s perspectives to reveal tensions

  • Readers learn about Okonkwo’s concerns as well as the reactions of his family and community

• The narrator offers the British district commissioner’s response to the Igbo people, offering alternative perspectives 

• The play opens on the battlements where the ghost appears:

  • Ghosts were considered to be manifestations of evil, prophets or messengers with ill omens

• Ophelia and Gertrude appear in domestic settings reflecting gender roles: 

  • Ophelia’s suicide outside of the castle walls may be interpreted as her resistance and her only form of control

• Graveyard scenes mirror Renaissance concerns with introspection and existential crises

• Umuofia is the novel’s fictional Igbo village in Nigeria

• Achebe illustrates the importance of Igbo ancestry:

  • Villages are defined by parental lineage (as either “fatherland” or “motherland”) 

• The “Evil Forest” demonstrates Igbo social and spiritual belief systems:

  • It is a physical dumping ground for the "unclean"

• Okonkwo’s exile to his motherland presents Igbo justice 

• Achebe highlights Igbo cultural perspectives in narration and dialogue:

  • He details the significance of weather and seasons in the rural agricultural village

• Ophelia’s conversations with her father reveal the submissive role of women in the Elizabethan era

• Hamlet’s words to her, “Get thee to a nunnery”, reveal patriarchal norms

• Claudius reveals gender ideals in his description of Hamlet’s grief as “unmanly”

• Narration presents the significance of proverbs in Igbo communication

• Dialogue between characters, such as the elders and Okonkwo, highlights the significance of the “Oracle” as a source of wisdom and justice

• Female characters tell fables to the children, presenting the domestic role of women and the importance of oral tradition

• Allusions to Hercules highlights gender ideals, specifically masculine strength 

• Allusions to Caesar highlight Elizabethan political unrest and ideas about betrayal and usurpation 

• The ghost alludes to a serpent, a Christian symbol of temptation and evil:

  • This suggests a clash between religion and the supernatural

• The novel’s title alludes to the W.B. Yeat’s poem The Second Coming, representing colonialism as a source of chaotic change

• Biblical allusions often represent the tensions between Christian missionaries and the Igbo belief system:

  • Reverend Smith compares Igbo spiritual beliefs to the pagan worship of “Baal”

  • Allusions to locusts present the British invasion as a plague

• Hamlеt's contеmplation of Yorick's skull is representative of Renaissance themes of mortality and human existence

• Thе “rottеn” state of Denmark symbolises cultural concerns regarding unnatural  disorder and political instability

• Drums are symbolic of Igbo tradition:

  • They are significant tools for communication, such as to signal important events

• Blood is symbolic of the violence in the village, both as a part of Igbo tradition and the British massacring of Igbo villages

• Hamlet voices attitudes to gender when he responds to his mother’s marriage to Claudius: “Frailty, thy name is woman!"

• Hamlet’s famous soliloquy includes the line “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all"

  • This presents tensions between religious attitudes or morality and masculine strength

• The clash of cultures (between the British and the Igbo) is illustrated in narration: “One of the greatest crimes a man could commit was to unmask an egwugwu in public”

• The narrator describes Okonkwo’s successes: “He had a large barn full of yams and he had three wives”

  • This illustrates patriarchal norms and cultural value systems 

The conflict between individual identity and restrictive social expectations

A Streetcar Named Desire

Both texts explore the struggle of the individual against powerful social systems

Hamlet depicts a male protagonist who turns against passive women, while Streetcar Named Desire’s female protagonist resists gender roles

Shakespeare critiques 16th- to 17th- century patriarchal attitudes and the significance of male honour

Othello

Both writers challenge patriarchal traditions and foreground male honour and ambition

The central conflict in Hamlet is the inability to carry out vengeance, while Othello’s central action focuses on jealousy and manipulation 

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a classical dramatic tragedy and morality play

The Great Gatsby

Both writers raise ideas about decay in critiques on corrupted societies built on extreme ambition  

Shakespeare relies on dialogue and action to reveal the protagonist’s character flaws, while Fitzgerald employs an unreliable narrator to describe the protagonist

Shakespeare’s Renaissance audience would understand the moral implications of Hamlet’s existential dilemma 

The Handmaid’s Tale

Both texts challenge audiences to consider the impact of corrupted societies on the impact on the individual 

Shakespeare challenges a Renaissance audience to consider themes of regicide and the human experience, while Atwood is concerned with futuristic totalitarian societies