Hamlet

For the last week or so my class has been watching ‘Hamlet”. The movie version of the famed play by William Shakespeare. I thought that I would laugh at Hamlet. I had previously watched the famous “to be or not to be” part on television once and I thought It was the most ridiculous thing ever. There was this guy in period clothing perched atop a cliff. He was sitting right at the very edge. Below him, the waves are crashing against the sheer cliff. So this guy is sitting there and he has a little pocket knife in his hand and he starts stabbing the rock. Then he goes “to be or not to be, that is the question”, and while he says it he’s stabbing the rock. It was quite amusing and I thought, wow what a lunatic. Last week I figured out that Hamlet comes out according to how the actor depicts him.

We have been watching the 1996 Kenneth Brannagh version of the play. Brannagh himself is in the title role. Brannagh’s Hamlet is quite funny. The way he portrays Hamlet makes me feel sympathy for Hamlet. I feel like Hamlet isn’t some crazy psych (as has been debated for a while). I feel like he is just this young man whose beloved father has died and less than a month after his uncle has married his mother and they are know king and queen of Denmark. What makes the situation nightmarishly worse than it is, is the fact that Hamlets fathers ghost comes to him and tells him that his uncle murdered him and too take revenge.

I don’t think Hamlet is crazy or insane; he is just aggrieved and angry at his situation; at his murderous uncle for, one, being murderous and two marrying and carrying on incestuously with his dear mother, as well as at his mother for not being grief ridden enough at her late husband’s death and for hastily getting married to his uncle. Any person would be angry and sad if they were in that situation. I think he’s just very depressed and so a little high on raw emotion.

What I do like about Brannagh’s Hamlet is the fact that he isn’t portrayed as over the top or broody or angsty. He is actually depicted as having quite the sense of humor even at a time where he is very sad and mad.

BTW this blog was written a couple months ago like in march i think.

But anyway We just finished ROsencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and I love that play as well.

Hamlet is definately, of the Shakespeare plays I have been exposed to, my favorite play so far. Hes funny and intelligent and all round nice guy who is just aggrieved. Give him a break

;)

~Live, Laugh, ARR