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Last updated

8 August 2026

pdf, 5.66 MB
pdf, 5.66 MB

Exam-ready analysis of Hamlet (William Shakespeare) for the Leaving Cert English Comparative Study, Higher Level, written for students in the form of a textbook.

A 30-page PDF covering all four Higher Level modes: Cultural Context, Literary Genre, Theme or Issue, and General Vision and Viewpoint. Every comparison point is partner-agnostic, so the book works whatever texts you pair the play with.

What’s inside:
  • General introduction: the author and the play, the world of the play, the story, the main characters, how the play is told, and the major themes.
  • Approaching the Comparative Question: how the exam section works and how to build comparative sentences.
  • A full chapter on each mode, opening with a “Reading for this mode” primer and “What the examiners ask”, then working through the play’s ground for that mode: a state before it is a family, a world of watchers, and women, obedience and burial (Cultural Context); the title, seven soliloquies, a play inside the play, delay, structure and the missing hero, and language, imagery and the two poisons (Literary Genre); revenge and the cost of the delay, grief and the permitted length of sorrow, and seeming, madness and the question of who is performing (Theme or Issue); where the outlook starts and how dark it gets, the counter-lights, and the ending and what it offers (General Vision and Viewpoint).
  • Close readings of two key moments in every chapter, with key-moment tables for fast revision and a moment-by-moment trajectory table for General Vision and Viewpoint.
  • A sample comparative paragraph in every mode, with slots for the student’s second text.
  • "Setting this text against others" notes and a comparison grid ending each mode chapter: the Hamlet column is filled in, and the Text 2 and Text 3 columns are left for the student’s own combination.
  • Eight original, SEC-style practice questions, two per mode.

Clear enough for students to read independently and rich enough to teach from. Licensed for the purchasing teacher to copy for their own students. Pairs with the companion Teacher Guide (sold separately); buy both in the Complete Bundle and save.

Get this resource as part of a bundle and save up to 17%

A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

Bundle

Hamlet for the Comparative Study (HL) - Complete Bundle

Everything you need to teach *Hamlet* for the Leaving Cert English Comparative Study (Higher Level) in one download: the Student Textbook your class reads from, the Teacher Guide you prepare from, and the free Text Suitability Guide alongside them. A prince comes home to find his father dead, his mother married to his uncle inside a month, and the uncle on the throne. The ghost demands revenge; Hamlet feigns madness, doubts the ghost, stages a play to test the king — and does not act, until he kills the wrong man behind a curtain and sets everything else moving. As a comparative choice it is the set text for talking about form: seven soliloquies, a play within the play, a delayed climax and a hero absent from his own middle acts, which makes it a sharp formal contrast with any novel, memoir or film. Its world is equally usable, a court where power is information — an elective crown, routine surveillance, daughters instructed by fathers, burial rules bent for rank. The bundle covers all four Higher Level modes (Cultural Context, Literary Genre, Theme or Issue, and General Vision and Viewpoint), and every comparison point is partner-agnostic, so the set works whatever texts you pair the play with. **What's included (three PDF files)** - **Student Textbook (30 pages):** the play analysed in continuous prose students can read independently. Each mode chapter opens with a "Reading for this mode" primer and "What the examiners ask", works through the play's key moments with close readings and key-moment tables, and closes with a sample comparative paragraph the student completes with their second text, "Setting this text against others" notes, and a comparison grid: the *Hamlet* column filled in, the Text 2 and Text 3 columns left for their own combination. Eight original, SEC-style practice questions, two per mode, end the book. References are given by act and scene rather than page or line, so they hold whatever edition your class is using. Licensed for the purchasing teacher to copy for their own students. - **Teacher Guide (24 pages):** your preparation, done. A sensitive-content briefing referenced by act and scene, with practical notes on length, editions and performance; the play read for the teacher, from story and structure to the outlook; a key-moments bank and a quotation and reference bank of sixteen quotations, each referenced by act and scene; each mode broken down into what examiners reward, where the play is strong, what to teach and the errors to pre-empt; a workable teaching sequence for a four-thousand-line play; notes on running the textbook's grids, sample paragraphs and practice questions in class; coupling guidance for choosing partner texts; assessment essentials (PCLM marking, the PEAL paragraph shape, timing); and question-angle banks drawn from recent SEC papers. - **Text Suitability Guide (2 pages, free):** the at-a-glance overview: synopsis, themes, sensitive content, and the play's strengths in the comparison modes at both Higher and Ordinary Level. The comparison grid rows are identical across every Prescribed Shelf comparative Student Textbook, so if your other texts are covered too, the three books line up row by row for your exact text combination. Buy the bundle and save on the separate prices. Written by a practising teacher.

£14.99

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