To be, or Not to be...

The first take on Hamlet, directed by Oliver, starts off with Hamlet perched on a cliff looking down at the crashing waves of a troubled sea, which could represent the tumultuous feelings he has about his own life. Slow sad music plays as Hamlet, behind closed eyes, fantasizes about the possibility of death ending all of these troubles. Suddenly at the line: “… perchance to dream…,” the music speeds up and Hamlet sits up with a wide-eyed expression as if woken up from an actual dream. The music and facial expressions indicate that Hamlet realizes the sweet dreams he has of suicide could in turn be nightmares, or impossible to ever come true. In the middle of his speech, Hamlet lets go of the dagger he carried with him and drops it in the dark stormy ocean. I think this action spoke to the idea of how Hamlet essentially “drops” going through with the act of killing himself and leaves the thought of death deep inside his troubled mind.

The second rendition of Hamlet sets the scene in a tomb; this choice is symbolic to the idea of death surrounding his thoughts. When saying “… tis a consummation..,” his eyes are tightly shut as if praying for death. Death appears to be something he needs, deeply desires for, and looks forward to. When transitioning to “…aye there’s the rub..,” his speech is faster paced and more emotional. In comparison to the other three clips, the sad and angry inflections of his voice let the audience comprehend exactly what he means even if they don’t necessarily understand the Shakespearian language.  Towards the end, Hamlet speaks in the middle of the light. When people “see the light” it can mean that they come to a realization. To me, Hamlet walking into the light while saying his last line represented the epiphany he was having about human life versus death. However, before he says his last word he trudges back into the darkness, which could show how he felt depressed and helpless after coming to this conclusion.

In Branagh’s version we only see Hamlet as he is talking through his reflection. A reflection is a false image, therefore I  believe it was meant to create an unsettling tone of uncertainty. I think it was a symbol for how we don’t really see the real Hamlet, how we don’t know if he’s really insane or not. In this scene, Branagh makes it clear that his interpretation of Hamlet was that Hamlet was indeed insane. This is evident in his expressionless tone which made him sound indifferent towards death, as if he’d feel nothing over a lost life. I found the part where Hamlet pulls out dagger and the camera flicks to Claudius to be a very interesting choice. I saw it as a symbol that Claudius is the real person who must die being he is the real cause behind Hamlet’s misery and not Hamlet himself. Throughout the entire scene, Hamlet slowly inches towards the mirror, which is a representation of how he gets deeper into his thoughts with every word. I also like the choice of putting Hamlet in front of the mirror, it literally and metaphorically shows how Hamlet talks about “facing himself”, confronting the pain and sufferings versus killing himself.

In the last clip we viewed, the Almereyda take, Hamlet doesn’t speak out loud when talking about how he wishes for death. I think there is a parallel in this and how he mentions later it’s not in people’s will to actually kill themselves – the idea only stays in their head. The camera shows a death scene in a movie playing in the video store when Hamlet starts talking about the consequences of death and when hamlet concludes his speech. I think that this could be a hint of foreshadowing, maybe Hamlet won’t kill himself, but someone else will? Or will hamlet have to kill someone else?