We
finished watching the different movies on Hamlet. I enjoyed watching these films because I
was able to compare the different interpretations of Hamlet. For instance in one
of the movies Gertrude is portrayed as accepting her sinful act, marrying her
late husband’s brother, whereas in the other films Gertrude’s character is
questionable and we do not know if she remorseful.
The performances for final
exams also helped me see how different interpretations of a single character or
a scene can change other parts of the play. As an example one of the groups did the scene
where Ophelia is returning Hamlet’s letters.
In this scene Hamlet could love Ophelia who is either innocent or a
whore. If Ophelia is a whore then Hamlet
most likely doesn’t love her so fulfilling his task, killing Claudius, would be
that much easier because he doesn’t have to worry about hurting her. However, if she is innocent and Hamlet does
love her, then it gives insight into Hamlet’s character because we see that
Hamlet values his dead father’s wishes more than his own happiness. In this case Hamlet shows a tremendous amount
of loyalty.
We have also been working on multiple-choice
questions, which is good because I need a lot of practice, and then we just
started reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
are Dead. I am anxious to see what
connections there are between the two plays and how my view of Hamlet will change, if at all.
The films were fun to watch because we have to take more things into account like a character's face expression, their tone of voice, or their physical movements. How would murdering Claudius hurt Ophelia? It seems like Ophelia doesn't like Claudius just as much as Hamlet doesn't like him because when she goes insane she accuses him of inappropriate behavior. It sounds like you have put a lot of thought into how each scene can be interpreted.
ReplyDeleteI liked watching all the different versions of Hamlet too, but it got a bit tedious after a while. I think it would've been okay to pick two or three scenes and compare those between the different versions, rather than large chunks of the movie. It seems that none of the versions of the play are accepted as the authoritative version; it seems all the interpretations are of equal merit, instead of one being deemed "correct" by the critics. WIth Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, however, it's the opposite. Since the film was directed by Stoppard himself, that portrayal is obviously the one the playwright intended.
ReplyDeleteWatching the movies was something I really liked as well, because of the ways the characters were interpreted differently by the directors. I agree with Greg, though, perhaps we could have compared things scene by scene. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern didn't seem to talk much about Hamlet, did it?
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