Essay question help needed for Hamlet/Ros and Guil are dead (1 Viewer)

[ChrissyG]

i've been given an essay to do over the break, but i have no clue as to where to begin. i don't need help doing the essay itself, besides, that would be cheating. What i need help with is understanding the question.

Question:
"The process of transformation involves much more that just the adaptation of ideas and form to contemporary situations and audiences." discuss this statement in relation to the two prescribed texts you have studied.

I'm having alot of trouble getting my head around the question. As in, what is it actually asking me to do? It's times like these that i think i've gotten in over my head by doing advanced...

 

[Lennie]

i've been given an essay to do over the break, but i have no clue as to where to begin. i don't need help doing the essay itself, besides, that would be cheating. What i need help with is understanding the question.

Question:
"The process of transformation involves much more that just the adaptation of ideas and form to contemporary situations and audiences." discuss this statement in relation to the two prescribed texts you have studied.

I'm having alot of trouble getting my head around the question. As in, what is it actually asking me to do? It's times like these that i think i've gotten in over my head by doing advanced...

Thats a shitty question.

Im not really sure how to answer it, but i guessit comes down to;

do you think that there are more to transformations then just the adaptation of ideas and form to contemporary situations and audiences?

Meh, i personally would say 'no' but im probably wrong.

Sorry i couldnt be more help
Good luck

 

[Aimz- Lou.]

It's basically asking what makes a transformation successful... For example, if you just took the exact plot of Hamlet and dressed the characters in modern clothing and had them speak modern english, would that be as successful as what Stoppard has achieved by subverting ideas and by developing peripheral characters? Are themes and context important?

Hope that helps.

 

[7minute]

Here's an example (though not a good one).

In the original Shakespeare play, Hamlet is the main character, and he's a prince. This was okay, as in Shakespeare's time the royal family was an important part of society.

R&G was written in the 1960s-70s for a modern audience and the monarchy has become much more irrelevant. The main characters Ros and Guil are ordinary people.

It's not all about adaptation. Sometimes it's also about change.

Here's another example... in Hamlet the big question asked by Hamlet is whether humans can determine their own destiny and improve themselves or are they completely under God's control. In this context humanism was on the rise.

In R&G the big question (among others if I recall correctly) is basically, what is there after death? Here, existensialism is the theory being discussed.

 

[ChrissyG]

thank you all for your help. I appreciate it. I guess we'll see in about a weeks time if I guessed right on it.
Thanks again for the help.