A student makes an observation about Hamlet . The focus on succession to the throne in Hamlet would have been interesting to an Elizabethan audience because their own queen had no heir. Which lens is the student most likely viewing the text through?

The student connects the play’s concern with succession to a real issue in Shakespeare’s time: Queen Elizabeth I had no heir. Interpreting a text through the historical lens means considering the events and concerns of the period in which it was written. So the historical lens is the best choice; the observation is not mainly about gender roles, literary structure, or abstract ideas.

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