1965 Peter Hall
Hamlets appearance as young, what about his performance made it believable?
Hamlets actor is 24 years old, youthful and illusions by the world around him. Scruffy in appearance (wore a moth-eaten black gown, looking like an undergrad uni student).
He was described as “human” and “sensitive”. Created a fluid tone that appealed to youth. He mumbled lines which made his performance believable. Often appeared rebellious and energetic. He died with a sardonic laugh and look of gleeful triumph.
1965 Peter Hall
Act 1 scene 2, control and familial control
Hamlet is trapped between Claudius and polonius. He was being watched and unable to roam free as he pleaded. Hamlet was presented as a young boy, controlled by the constraints of his family.
1965 Peter Hall
Polonius’ character and shrewdness rather than comical.
Polonius is cunning and Machiavellian by ruthlessly using Ophelia as a tool to climb the social hierarchy ladder. He is not comical and instead appears as a shrewd.
1965 Peter Hall
Ophelia’s appearance as a daughter, a woman
Contradictory, how does she appear differently to other interpretations? What affect does this have on watchers?
She received no comfort at all from polonius and Claudius. She is merely a pawn. At the beginning, she appears a woman with tense strength but slowly her self control snapped. She is seen pointing an accusatory finger at those responsible for her family’s tragedy.
Ophelia also tends to be an assertive and independent character rather than the usual victim. She is rebellious and strong. This is rebellious at the time where women’s roles in theatre adhered to the usual conventional stereotypes. She also had raw emotional intensity. Inner turmoil, portrayed as mad with a haunting quality. She elicits a powerful response.
1965 Peter Hall
The ghosts appearance
The ghost and hamlets interaction act 1 scene 4 (child-like, hugging)
The ghost was a marionette that was 10ft high, attached to hidden wheels to glide and sway out of shadows and across the stage. Multiple duplicates used to allow ghost to easily “disappear”.
The ghost hugs hamlet in act 1 scene 4. Hamlet shrinks to a child like state in his arms. Shows how hamlet is still just a child and he cannot live up the power and extent of his father.
1965 Peter Hall
Gertrude’s nature as a woman, what does her physical appearance reveal?
(Death, hair)
She is a woman terrified by the pressure of events she cannot even comprehend.
Shallow nature= large wigs and elaborate dresses.
Her appearance as bald= vulnerable and easy to crumble.
Vomit before death= undignified and disgusting.
2016 Godwin- Paapa Essiedu
Painting, graffiti
Act 3 scene 1 and hamlets appearance to audiences.
The act of panting is associated with identity destruction.
In act 3 scene 1, hamlet speaks to Ophelia “god hath given you one face, and you make another”. Hamlet adds green paint to his face- audiences see that the paint literslly gives him another face. Perhaps hamlet actually relates to his statement as he pretends to be mad, is expected to be like his father and fights his grief, he has a range of different identity’s.
2016 Godwin- Paapa Essiedu
Act 3 scene 1 Ophelia and hamlets interaction- his insanity.
What does Ophelia’s and healers insanity together represent to the audience?
Hamlet picks up Ophelia, runs and throws her down. He tried to convince Ophelia of his insanity by forcefull restraining her and smearing paint over her face also.
Ophelia later descends into madness herself. Could represent how hamlet tried to change how audiences perceive them- shows hamlet as controlling towards women and Ophelia the vulnerable weak girl she is.
2016 Godwin- Paapa Essiedu
Act 2 scene 2- hamlets transformation from mourner to avenger
What critical view does this link too?
Hamlet had learnt of his uncles betrayal and begins to go mad and begins his journey of revenge. He is no longer in a black mourning suit and instead wears a paint splattered suit. He is powerful and unrestrained. He actively disrupts the court with his art.
Links to G Wilson Knight- “hamlet is a state of evil”
2016 Godwin- Paapa Essiedu
Ophelia’s and Larry’s wholesome relationship.
Ophelia as a sparky animated young woman who unashamedly groans at laertes comment on her virginity and Hamlet. They have a warm playful relationship.
2009 Doran- David Tennant
CCTV usage and the ghost- 2 conflicting interpretations?
Creates themes of surveillance of constantly being watched. The ghost isn’t picked up- there are limitations to control in Elsinore or maybe, the ghost isn’t real.
2009 Doran- David Tennant
Hamlets right to the thrown symbolised by what?
What does this present hamlet as?
Hamlet wears a crown which symbolises his right to be king but how he can’t fulfill this due to his inability to get revenge on Claudius.
It presents him as indecisive and someone who wishes he could live up to his father (a knight) but unable to.
2009 Doran- David Tennant
How is the audience shown hamlets first sighting of madness?
Hamlet physically grasps his head, illustrating the level of commitment to his father, almost showing how the knowledge of his father’s death and need to avenge plagues him. This is the audiences first introduction to his madness.
2009 Doran- David Tennant
Act 2 scene 2 hamlets appearance
What does hamlets clothes show?
What does he walk too? What does this show?
No shoes on, crawls into a ball. He looks directly at the camera and shows anger. He hits himself and asks the camera if he is a coward.
He wears a T-shirt and is lanky, shows his lack of manliness and his obvious lack of resemblance to his king father.
What’s towards 4 chairs, his uncle now sits with his family of 3.
2009 Doran- David Tennant
Act 1 scene 3 Ophelia’s and laertes interaction
What does this show?
Laertes follows her up the stairs and sits close to her as he mentions hamlet and his virginity. He patronises her, like a father would to their son/ daughter and advises her to be aware of her “chaste treasure”. Perhaps incestual connotations?
1948- Olivier
How does the play open and what does this present for the theme of the film?
What is hamlets Hamartia? What could it be instead?
“The tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind”
Forebodes the central theme of uncertainty.
Hamartia (concept from aristotles poetics that a character defect of a hero causes his own fall or ruin). Hamlets is indecisiveness. Or hamlet distrusts himself to enact revenge as he identifies with Claudius. Hamlets issue isn’t that he cannot make up his mind, it’s that he’s trying to master his own will.
1948- Olivier
What does the play ignore in order to favour something else?
The play ignored the politics in favour for the domestic tragedy and the disturbed mother and son relationship.
1948- Olivier
How is hamlet presented as melancholic?
He slouches in his chair “princely thrown” and his mind is muddled with depression.
1948- Olivier
Act 4 scene 5 laertes confront Claudius and Ophelia appears, what is the camera doing?
The scene begins with dialogue far away as Ophelia is walking down a long corridor to interrupt them. The camera cannot make up its mind whose story it is- all the characters matter (key to a Shakespearean drama).
1948- Olivier
How is Ophelia’s death presented?
Olivier recreates John Everret Millais’s painting of Ophelia floating down a narrow overgrown channel. Her dress drags her down.
1948- Olivier
How is Ophelia’s character presented?
Intelligent, sensitive, vulnerable and mad when trying to make the world make sense.
1948- Olivier
How is an oedipal interpretation shown between hamlet and Gertrude in act 3 scene 4?
How does Oliver reinforce this?
What does this complex suggest about hamlet and his identity with Claudius?
They share a close embrace and a kiss on the lips. Hamlet is more attracted to Gertrude than he is to Ophelia. His intense obsession with his mother’s sexual life in this is seen as a projection of his unconscious sexual desire.
Reinforced with visual framing. Olivier uses tight close-ups of their faces, a soft focus around Gertrude and low lighting with resembles romance.
Suggests that Hamlet subconsciously indentifiesbwith Claudius because he achieved Hamlets desire: murdering his father and marrying his mother.
Claudius as a gentle king
G.W Knight
“Claudius as he appears in the play is not a criminal….. he is a good and gentle king, trapped by the chain of causality linking him with his crime”
Claudius’ personality- the king and saviour
Mumford Jones
“Mature, shrewd leader of men, every inch a king, the salvation of denmark”
