Hamlet interpretations

Interpretations of the ghost 4x

• 1980 Richard Eyre - Hamlet as possessed by the ghost

• 1990 Zeffirelli - fatherly, reaches out to camera

• 1962 Kozintsev - Ghost really big imposing black figure

• Michael Boyd 2004 production - demonic - dressed in rags

Hamlet as evil 2x

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead 1966 Tom Stoppard 

• 2002 Peter Brooke - Hamlet super violent with Ophelia, choking her, pulling her hair

Hamlet as popular with the people

• Icke 2017 - Hamlet as super popular - news footage after his death shows hundreds of flowers placed by the public in memory of him

Hamlet’s mental turmoil/paralysis 3x

• 2017 Robert Icke - Claudius standing before H allowing him to kill him and he still cannot act

• Ben Whitshaw in Trevor Nunn's 2004 production - Hamlet as about to kill himself with pills

• Olivier 1948 'the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind'

Emphasis on surveillance in the court + extent of it 6x

• 2008 Gregory Doran - scenes through CCTV

• 2017 Robert Icke - Hamlet mocks Polonius talking into his collar

• 2000 Almereyda - their love letter in a plastic wallet - corruption spreading into private affairs

• 2017 Robert Icke - Hamlet and ophelia dancing and kissing in private

• Nicholas Hytner 2010 - Claudius kills Ophelia

• Hytner 2010 - Polonius forcing Ophelia to talk to claudius when she clearly doesn't want to

Hamlet as enacting surveillance

2008 Gregory Doran Hamlet filming the play with a camera

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - as villainous or innocent

• 2000 Almereyda - R&G scene - in a bar - they do not reveal that they were sent for. Cuts to G + C in bed on phone with R&G, listening to their conversation from start of a3sc1 - infiltrating many aspects

• Robert Hastie 2025 - school boy esque costumes

Claudius’s morality/performance 4x

• Gregory doran - ghost = Claudius

• Versus claudius in kozintsev - criticism of capitalism

• Or 2017 Icke - discovery space - of party in the background - gilded performance of perfection & equanimity

• Also Icke - photo shown at the end of royal family smiling (when king was alive) with Claudius lurking frowning in the background - sense of foreboding, he is scheming his usurpation

hamlet’s madness 2x

• 2000 Almereyda - skips 'antic disposition' line - not a disguise

• Mark Rylance 1989 ,Directed by Ron Daniels - appeared in stained pyjamas, spitting - very emphatic performance of madness

Play within a play 2x

• 2017 Robert Icke - reactions of characters shown on screen above stage - Claudius's face frozen on & static - idea of façade removed - frozen, glitched, revealing the truth

• 2002 Peter Brooke - Hamlet crouches next to Lucianus, their proximity emphasising the parallels

Horatio

Paul Warner 2021 Hamlet/Horatio film - told through Horatio's perspective as a filmmaker desperately trying to keep Hamlet's memory & story alive - some love tensions stuff

Hamlet’s masculinity 3x

• Almereyda Ethan hawke - mopey, depressed, teenager vibes, emo, wearing black, totally unfit for cold blooded murder

• Zefirelli 1990s - Mel Gibson - more traditionally powerful - wearing armour etc

• Doran 2008 - wearing the shirt with abs on it

Gertrude 5x

• 2017 Robert Icke - dancing with Claudius - emphasis on their relationship

• But also 2017 Robert Icke - defies Claudius - grips his hand when he tries to stop her drinking - also reads a letter that tells her that C plans to kill H - more active

• Henry Irving in 1800s - 'I have my lord' rather than 'I will my lord'

• Gertrude - the Cry 2002 Howard Barker - reimagining where Gertrude kills her husband with Claudius because of her intense desire for Claudius - very focussed on her s/xuality

• Laurence Olivier 1948, Gertrude played by Eileen Herlie who was younger than Olivier

Ophelia 7x

• Kozintsev

musical leitmotif (repeated musical phrase linked here with Ophelia) plays while Ophelia dances restrainedly

• The music is stilted, rigid in form - reflects the control over Ophelia. Similarly her dancing is not expressive, but specific and formulaic - marionette puppet - ultimate passivity. She curtseys - idea that she is only entertainment, a service to the court. Idea of a doll in a music box - confined beauty only for others to look at, rather than express herself. The dance features a  lot of moving from side to side - like how she is pulled from Hamlet to P&C etc - pulled between conspirators.

• Almereyda - love letter in a plastic wallet - corruption, surveillance etc. finding the microphone

• Death - Millais 1851 painting versus Leonor Fini, 1964 - 'La Toilette inutile' (The Useless Dress) - reimagined - drowning in flames of passion - rebellion

• Simon Godwin 2016 Cuts on her arms, pulling out her hair - Total change from aestheticized madness of previous interpretations

• 2018 Claire McCarthy film

• 2010 Ophelia killed by Claudius

• Icke 2017 - true love

Laertes

Doran- condoms in the suitcase?

Humour 3x

• Ways Polonius is made funny

  • Robert icke?

  • Osric  - Doran

• gravediggers - Doran - throwing singular skull up while still inside

Claudius and Gertrude

• Robert icke - true love; drinking the poison, holding his hand; also Claudius reaching forher hand while dying

Claudius as sure/unsure of himself 3x

• Gregory doran - intensity of surveillance

• Icke - frozen image of him on the board

• Icke also super sure of himself for example in the prayer scene

Theme of death 4x

• Trevor Nunn 2004 pills

• RSC 2013 production, Ophelia's corpse remained visible --> constant reminder of death

• Doran 2008 - real skull used

• Fear of death - Robert Icke 2017 fiddling with his watch = anxious obsession with mortality. Then at the end all the characters give their watches to the ghost to symbolise them dying, but the ghost has already taken hamlet's watch - he doesn't have autonomy over it

Hamlet as childish 2x

• Robert Hastie 2025 dies in Horatio's arms, childish throughout, very tragic

• Also Branagh 1996 dies in the foetal position

Fortinbras 3x

• Icke - cyclic structure ? Starting and ending with news footage

• Kozintsev - Fortinbras with big army ; ending films the crashing waves which previously seemed to symbolise Hamlet's turmoil - so turmoil continues? Depravity continues?

• Branagh 1996 - super cold and aloof - crowned immediately despite the littered bodies - room lined with many uniformed soldiers with massive guns - feels like the beginning of another similarly authoritarian state. Then after he says go bid the soldiers shoot - very unsettling shot of them carrying out hamlet's body - his head rolls backwards and his eyes are still open - very unsettling

Claudius as performative/machiavellian

Icke - Claudius machiavellian - lots of focus on news footage, always being filmed

Horatio and Hamlet when Hamlet dies 2x

• Hastie 2025 - dies in his arms

• Icke 2017 - same, voice cracking, very tragic