Explore Shakespeare's presentation of death in Hamlet

One of the things that students find most daunting about the A Level English Literature exams is the fact that questions can be so 'open'. However, it is essential to realise that this can be used to your advantage. Remember to be confident in your own writing: this will come across very clearly to the examiner. The first step in any essay is to break down the question. There is no use writing an answer when you don't understand the question fully. So, in this case, we need to take advantage of the fact that 'death' is such an open word. In the context of Hamlet, we can link the idea of death to suicide, and also to killing in general. Also, we could create a distinction between natural and unnatural death. So, in the case of King Hamlet, we see an unnatural death as caused by Claudius, who poisons him. This is different from how the word 'death' might be interpreted in an everyday context, where people die from 'natural causes'. Once we have fully broken down the question into the potential areas we want to tackle, we move onto planning and writing.Next, we must plan the essay and start writing. There are two things to remember when planning and writing your essay:i. Frame your essay as an argument. For an essay to make sense structurally, you need to be writing it as if two people were having an argument about the subject at hand. This is where words like 'However' and phrases like 'On the other hand' come in very handy. So, in terms of an overall structure, what examiners are looking for is a clear introduction which lays out the arguments which you are going to address, the first argument which you mentioned in the intro, a counterargument to the first argument, then another point in favour of the first argument, then another counterargument, and finally a brief conclusion which makes sense of the arguments which came before it.ii. Address the Mark Scheme. In the Edexcel mark scheme for A Level English Literature, students are given 'Assessment Objectives' ('AO's) through which they are assessed. Assessment Objective 1 (AO1) is the overall structure and argumentative arch of your essay. If you were able to give a balanced, coherent and well structured account of the given topic, your AO1 will be high. AO2 refers to your ability to analyse specific textual elements. If you were able to identify literary techniques like 'metaphor', 'simile', 'juxtaposition' and gave a convincing account of what those qualities might represent, your AO2 will be high. AO3 refers to contextual knowledge. If you were able to draw from your historical contextual knowledge - in this case, Shakespeare's life, or the politics of Elizabethan England - in a relevant and coherent way, your AO3 will be high. AO4 is your ability to compare two texts, so in the case of Hamlet, this would not be relevant. AO5, one of the most important but most forgotten elements, is your ability to use the literary analysis of others. If you can convincingly incorporate the analysis of previous literary critics like Hazlitt, Goethe or Greenblatt, your AO5 will be high. This is particularly important because the ideas of previous critics like the ones I've mentioned can be 'pitted against' each other, which, if you are able to accomplish it in your essay, will also contribute to your AO1.