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Study Guide: A Hamlet Commentary
The Commentary, scholarly in its focus yet informal in its tone, explores the text's significant detail in order to bring out its full meaning (and meanings). It takes students and general readers through the play line by line and asks, along the way, a succession of penetrating questions as a means of clarifying what's really being said by the characters, why they do what they do, and why Shakespeare has them speak, and act, in those ways.
It provides specific support for students working towards examinations within a range of assessment structures, at both high school and college level...but it will be enjoyed by all lovers of Shakespeare.
A major focus throughout is on what makes 'Hamlet' successful not only as literature but as a piece of working theatre.The Commentary is designed to be used alongside any edition of the play, since it includes running line references in the margin, and is therefore easy to align with the play's text.
This is the Student Edition. The only difference between it and the Teaching Copy is that the suggested responses are located in an Answers Section at the end of the book. This allows students to work independently through the questions and study tasks in the main body of the resource, and to consult the suggested responses only if and when they are ready to do so.
It provides specific support for students working towards examinations within a range of assessment structures, at both high school and college level...but it will be enjoyed by all lovers of Shakespeare.
A major focus throughout is on what makes 'Hamlet' successful not only as literature but as a piece of working theatre.The Commentary is designed to be used alongside any edition of the play, since it includes running line references in the margin, and is therefore easy to align with the play's text.
This is the Student Edition. The only difference between it and the Teaching Copy is that the suggested responses are located in an Answers Section at the end of the book. This allows students to work independently through the questions and study tasks in the main body of the resource, and to consult the suggested responses only if and when they are ready to do so.
287 pages, Paperback
Published January 29, 2020
About the author
H.S. Toshack
19 books8 followersH. S. Toshack has lived and worked as an English teacher and educational consultant in the UK, the Caribbean, Africa, Thailand and the Middle East. He now lives and writes in Portugal.
His first three 'Paka Mdogo' stories are set in Africa, but they are coloured by his experience of people, animals and lives lived in all of those other places.
Second editions of the books (with some narrative revisions to make them an even more compelling read) are newly published on Amazon, together with a first edition of 'The Smile of the Tiger', set in Thailand.
"Sheena led me through all four books. It was as if she was telling her stories through me. That's why I've put her portrait on my Amazon profile page: she's my co-author.
"My favourite in the series? Probably the first one, 'Paka Mdogo – Little Cat', since it took me so fully back to Africa in my imagination; but I have to say that 'The Meerkat Wars' is the most important, since it explores in very dramatic fashion the issue of conflict, and offers young readers reassurance in our troubled times that divisiveness can be resisted and harmony achieved through listening, talking and honest thinking."
'The Smile of the Tiger' is dedicated to "all animals (and people) who are in places they do not want to be", and tells a rather different story from the African books; but the indomitable Sheena, with her ability to make friends and her skill in helping them, and her open and inquiring mind, is a constant.
The following is a link to a selection of reviews of the African stories, some by young readers: http://www.litworks.com/downloads/rev....
H.S. Toshack is also the principal author of 'The WordSmith Guides', designed to help senior secondary students prepare for external exams across a range of assessment systems. Here's link to a page of comments on the online editions of those resources: https://www.litworks.com/commendation....
The Shakespeare commentaries are now available in paperback: put H.S. Toshack in an Amazon Search Box.
The first four in a series of poems and photographs reflecting some of H.S. Toshack's travels (in Africa, Portugal, Thailand and Peru) - 'Poems and Places' - are newly published on Amazon.
He has produced, with Sonia Orwell’s permission, a dramatised version of Animal Farm, for use in schools. It has been successfully performed, but is yet to be published. (“I take no great credit for that work – it was really just a rewarding ‘cut and paste’ process from a powerful story with increasing importance in today’s troubled times.”)
“Which genre brings you most satisfaction as a writer?” we asked this versatile author.
“The one that allows me to help open young and not so young minds to new ways of thinking – about life as well as literature. But I guess that’s all four.”
His first three 'Paka Mdogo' stories are set in Africa, but they are coloured by his experience of people, animals and lives lived in all of those other places.
Second editions of the books (with some narrative revisions to make them an even more compelling read) are newly published on Amazon, together with a first edition of 'The Smile of the Tiger', set in Thailand.
"Sheena led me through all four books. It was as if she was telling her stories through me. That's why I've put her portrait on my Amazon profile page: she's my co-author.
"My favourite in the series? Probably the first one, 'Paka Mdogo – Little Cat', since it took me so fully back to Africa in my imagination; but I have to say that 'The Meerkat Wars' is the most important, since it explores in very dramatic fashion the issue of conflict, and offers young readers reassurance in our troubled times that divisiveness can be resisted and harmony achieved through listening, talking and honest thinking."
'The Smile of the Tiger' is dedicated to "all animals (and people) who are in places they do not want to be", and tells a rather different story from the African books; but the indomitable Sheena, with her ability to make friends and her skill in helping them, and her open and inquiring mind, is a constant.
The following is a link to a selection of reviews of the African stories, some by young readers: http://www.litworks.com/downloads/rev....
H.S. Toshack is also the principal author of 'The WordSmith Guides', designed to help senior secondary students prepare for external exams across a range of assessment systems. Here's link to a page of comments on the online editions of those resources: https://www.litworks.com/commendation....
The Shakespeare commentaries are now available in paperback: put H.S. Toshack in an Amazon Search Box.
The first four in a series of poems and photographs reflecting some of H.S. Toshack's travels (in Africa, Portugal, Thailand and Peru) - 'Poems and Places' - are newly published on Amazon.
He has produced, with Sonia Orwell’s permission, a dramatised version of Animal Farm, for use in schools. It has been successfully performed, but is yet to be published. (“I take no great credit for that work – it was really just a rewarding ‘cut and paste’ process from a powerful story with increasing importance in today’s troubled times.”)
“Which genre brings you most satisfaction as a writer?” we asked this versatile author.
“The one that allows me to help open young and not so young minds to new ways of thinking – about life as well as literature. But I guess that’s all four.”
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