Hamlet

Essay 1 - Elizabethan Threatre versus Theatre Today Elizabethan theatres were much different than the theatres of today. They were open aired and circular in design. The stage and acting areas were also mcuh different than in theatres today. The most important feature of the Elizabethan stage was that it was a thrust stage. This means that it was extended into the audience, similar to fashion "catwalks" of today. There was no procenium arch and no curtains on the stage. This affected the way that scene changes occurred in Shakespearean plays, and also tells us why little or no props were used on stage. The stage was risen off the ground, and could be watched from all three sides by the audience. The actors entered the stage from curtained doors at the back of the stage which let out to the tiring house. On the main stage, there was a trapdoor, which could be used to raise and lower ghosts and other supernatural figures. The area below the stage which was accessed by the trapdoor was called the "hell". Above the main stage there was a ceiling, called "The Heavens" which was painted with pictures of stars and protected the players somewhat from inclimate weather. Through a trapdoor in the heavens there was machinary which could be used to lower and actor on to the stage, such as a God coming down from heaven. At the back of the main stage it is believed that there was an "inner stage". The existance of this inner stage is still being debated, but many believe that it was a small 3 walled room with a curtain covering the entrance. This inner stage could have been used in such scenes as the "play within a play" in Hamlet, the tomb in Romeo and Juliet, and the curtain of the inner stage could have been used in the scene from Hamlet when Polonius is stabbed while hiding behind the rug. Above the stage in Elizabethan theatres was a balcony area, which could be used either for musicians, or for acting. This balcony area could have been used in scenes such as the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, and when the ghost of Hamlet's father appears in Hamlet. These were the acting areas of the Elizabethan theatre. The style and construction of the Elizabethan theatre dramatically affected the way that plays could be staged, and also affected the way they were written. "Elizabethan Threatre versus Theatre Today." 123HelpMe.com. 23 Mar 2011 . Essay 2 - Hamlet's Delay in Shakespeare's Hamlet Hamlet is truly a great play. Any work of literature that generates so much debate and has lasted for four hundred years must be pure genius. One question that has puzzled readers and audiences alike is Hamlet's delay. Why does he wait so long to kill Claudius' During and immediately following Hamlet's conversation with the Ghost, he is determined to fulfill the Ghost's wishes. Hamlet already has a plan to catch Claudius. However, the next time he appears in the play, which is long after the Ghost's visit, he has not yet done the deed. He admits he may have been deceived by the ghost. "The spirit that I have seen / May be a devil, and the devil hath power / T' assume a pleasing shape (2.2.627-629). To fully understand Hamlet’s inaction, it is important to look at revenge. In Richard III revenge is not exacted until Richard is dead and his fowl deeds found out. In Othello, Iago will not be revenged until Othello is completely destroyed. In Merchant of Venice Shylock wants to humiliate and then kill Antonio. Thus revenge is not exacted until the evil deeds of the offender are revealed and the public knows the truth. Only then does the thought of death come into revenge. Under this light, Hamlet cannot kill Claudius until he can prove that he poisoned the late king. Thus the first two acts are not only for the reader to understand Hamlet, but to allow Hamlet to gather needed evidence against his uncle. It is not until act three, when Hamlet has not been able to prove his uncle is a murder that he decides to force Claudius’ hand. Hamlet comes up with the idea of the play to prove whether or not Claudius is guilty. But the play also causes another problem. Hamlet discovers Claudius’ guilt but has no evidence to present to the people. Thus, when Hamlet sees Claudius praying he stays his hand until he can absolutely prove his guilt. Another reason why Hamlet stays his hand is because Claudius is praying. It is Hamlet’s fervent belief that if he kills Claudius while he is praying he might go to heaven. Which makes the final lines of that scene so ironic. After Hamlet has left, Claudius says, “My words fly up, my thoughts,/ remain below:/ Words without thoughts never to heaven go”(lines 97-99). Claudius does not think that his words are reaching God. Thus if Hamlet would have killed Claudius, he still would have gone to hell. Some critics attribute Hamlets inability to act to an Oedipus complex. These proponents say that Hamlet, in his subconscious mind, has a desire to do exactly what his uncle has done; that is, get rid of the husband so that he can have Gertrude for himself. If this is true, Hamlet cannot act because he is fighting against his subconscious; he knows he wants something that is entirely evil, and if he were to go through with it, he would be no better than Claudius. Still other critics believe that Hamlet simply thinks too much. He wants the murder of the King to be perfect. Claudius has to go to hell. The people have to know about the murderer Claudius. Hamlet spends too much time planning and not enough time doing; thus, making the King's murder more complicated than other murders he has orchestrated. Also, he has to be careful around Claudius after the play because it revealed his sanity to the King as it reveled the guilt of Claudius to Hamlet. After the play within a play, Hamlet has proof and still cannot act. Not until everybody is dying, including himself, does he realizes that he should not have waited so long. He understands the consequences of his delay, all of his pent-up rage explodes, and he murders the King; getting the revenge he was after from the beginning. Fortunately, because of the great writing of Shakespeare any of these interpretations are valid and can be supported by the text. "Hamlet's Delay in Shakespeare's Hamlet." 123HelpMe.com. 23 Mar 2011 . Essay 3 - Applying Showalter’s Idea’s to Branagh's Film Version of Hamlet Elaine Showalter begins her essay, Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism, by criticizing analyses of Shakespeare's Hamlet that have virtually ignored the character of Ophelia in the past. The feminist critic argues that Ophelia is an important character in her own right, not just a foil to Hamlet. Further, she says that Ophelia's story is important to tell from a feminist perspective because it allows Ophelia to upstage Hamlet, and that this re-telling can be done by tracing the iconography of Ophelia in visual art, theater, movies, and even psychiatric theory. Showalter's essay revolves around three linked themes. She believes that society's iconography of Ophelia demonstrates the cultural bonds between female sexuality and female insanity, and she thinks also that this iconography shows the historical exchange between psychiatric theory and the representation of Ophelia in culture. Finally, Showalter traces the ways in which actresses have portrayed Ophelia on stage throughout the evolution of the feminist movement. By applying Showalter's ideas to Kenneth Branagh's film version of Hamlet, a feminist interpretation can be extracted from the movie. Not all of Showalter's points are relevant to the film, though. It is not possible to trace the historical representation of Ophelia in the movie because there is only one portrayal, but it is entirely possible to use Showalter's references about the association between female insanity and sexuality to interpret the film. If applied to Branagh's movie, this theme, as well as Showalter's ideas about the link between Ophelia's representation in psychiatric theory and popular culture, bring feminist insight to the film. These themes of Showalter's are explained comprehensively in her essay, but they must be applied a step further when used to interpret Branagh's film. Instead of tracing the historical iconography of Ophelia in art, psychiatry, music and popular culture, it is useful to examine how the iconography of Ophelia in these genres influences Branagh's Hamlet. Of most importance though, is Showalter's proposal concerning the relationship between female insanity and sexuality. Many of Showalter's ideas about the ways in which Ophelia's sexuality and madness have been portrayed throughout the years can be applied to the patriarchal society that Branagh presents in his film in order to show the relationship between male suppression of female sexuality and female insanity. As a result, Ophelia, and her madness, frustration, and anger can be realized from a feminist standpoint. An example of this male suppression of female sexuality can be seen at the beginning of the play in a scene in which Ophelia and her brother walk through a garden while discussing Ophelia's relationship with Hamlet (1.3.43-44). Laertes warns his sister not to continue her relationship with Hamlet: "Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain If with too credent ear you list his songs, Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open To his unmast'red importunity" (1.3.43). Almost as soon as Laertes finishes lecturing Ophelia about her sexuality, her father, Polonius gives Ophelia his advice about the matter as well. Here, Ophelia is what Elaine Showalter calls a "consistent study in psychological intimidation, a girl terrified of her father, of her lover, and of life itself"(234). In his movie Branagh presents Ophelia as an intimidated victim. Polonius scoffs at Ophelia's suggestion that Hamlet's interest in her is romantic, and instead warns her that she had better not make him the grandfather of a bastard grandchild. Branagh shoots this scene in a chapel which in itself had overtones of patriarchal religion, sin, and guilt, but Branagh also chooses to film Ophelia and Polonius behind barred doors. This visualization helps convey how trapped by the men in her life Ophelia feels. Before she can scarcely vocalize them, Ophelia's feelings are immediately negated by her brother and father, and worse, her father's interests seem to lie less with his daughter's feelings but more with his own reputation. Showalter writes that a Freudian interpretation of Hamlet presents Ophelia's familial relationships as incestuous, and Branagh seems to take a somewhat Freudian approach. During the scene in which Laertes gives Ophelia his opinion about her relationship with Hamlet, Branagh shows the two walking arm-in-arm through the palace gardens like lovers. They look deeply into each other's eyes and even kiss tenderly on the lips (3.1.43). Branagh presents Ophelia's relationship with her father in a similar light. During the movie in Act Two, Scene 1, Ophelia rushes into her father's room in a sheer, flowing nightgown. After speaking with him about the confrontation she has just had with Hamlet, her father leaves the room, and she lays down on her father's bed as if it is an all too comfortable and familiar place. This same scene in the movie demonstrates the sexual double standard in Shakespeare's Hamlet--that men are entitled to promiscuity while women are chastised for their indiscretion. Before a distraught Ophelia makes her entrance into Polonius' chambers, Branagh exposes Polonius with a prostitute whom treats with crude disgust. During this scene Polonius conveys to Reynaldo that for a young man like his son Laertes, an accusation of whoring, would not damage his son's honor, because acts like "drabbing" are excusable and common among young noblemen who possess "a savageness of unreclaimed blood" (2.1.57). While Polonius condones promiscuous or premarital sex for himself and his son, he believes that Ophelia's virginity must be kept at any cost, including her happiness and sanity. Showalter believes that the newest perspective on Ophelia's madness is that it is in protest of hypocritical male-ordered societies like the one which Branagh presents in this scene. Ophelia's unfortunate position as being an object of male-dominated society is obvious in Act 3, Scene 1 when Hamlet commands her to go to a nunnery. Branagh leaves no ambiguity about Hamlet and Ophelia's sexual past when he shows flashbacks of them in erotic scenes. Despite this closeness and tenderness Branagh's Hamlet obviously has felt for her in the past, he does not hesitate to turn Ophelia into an object and drag her around the room by her hair as if she feels no emotional or physical pain because of his cruelty and betrayal of her affection. The ability of the male characters in Hamlet to objectify Ophelia and ignore her needs is related to what Showalter calls the "iconography" of Ophelia throughout time. Ophelia represents an intriguing cultural icon of femininity and womanhood. Showalter states that "[t]hough she is neglected in criticism, Ophelia is probably the most frequently illustrated and cited of Shakespeare's heroines. Her visibility is a subject in literature, popular culture, and painting from Redon, who paints who drowning, to Bob Dylan who places her on Desolation Row, to Cannon Mills" (221). Ophelia represents aspects of the archetypal woman that society believes is representative of all women. Perhaps society's infatuation with Ophelia's character is a result of Ophelia's unfortunate positioning as a sexual and psychological victim of male society; but, whatever the reason, these iconographic representations of Ophelia in art and science are reflected in Branagh's movie. Showalter writes that the most contemporary portrayal of Ophelia's character is that of a schizophrenic, and Showalter states further that this modern diagnosis is so because "the schizophrenic woman has become the cultural icon of dualistic femininity in the mid-twentieth century as the erotomaniac was in the seventeenth" (236). It is this twentieth-century diagnosis that influence Branagh when he presents Ophelia in a dingy straight jacket and in a padded cell. However, traces of Ophelia as the historically sensual erotomaniac driven insane by her sexual frustration and desire are reflected in Branagh's film as well as when Ophelia rushes around the palace with her stereotypically disheveled hair and flowing white gown. Showalter writes that this antiquated, typical portrayal of Ophelia is one that so captivated psychiatrists in the Victorian Era that they had their institutionalized patients dress like and perform the role of Ophelia. There are glimmers of influence from visual art in Branagh's movie as well, such as the similarity of Branagh's drowning Ophelia to a representation of Ophelia in a painting by John Everett Millais which is part of Showalter's essay (230). Also, the influence of modern psychiatry is alluded to near the end Branagh's film when Ophelia is shown in a cell being showered by a hose, perhaps in an effort to control her worsening mental illness. From a feminist perspective, the image of the hose at once symbolizes a phallus and also the patriarchy's attempt to force Ophelia to conform to its will. But, Ophelia is hiding the key to the cell in her mouth, and she presumably uses it to escape from her male oppressors and patriarchal society forever by killing herself. Branagh's imagery at this point is influenced by what Showalter writes is the new perspective on Ophelia found in feminist discourse. Showalter writes that, to many contemporary feminist theorists, Ophelia is "a heroine, a powerful figure who rebels against the family and the social order; and the hysteric who refuses to speak the language of the patriarchal order, who speaks otherwise, is a sister." (237). This refusal by Ophelia to speak in the language of male society is also demonstrated in Shakespeare's text during Ophelia's "mad scene" in which she speaks in rhyme and song (4.5.117-118). Perhaps she is mad, or maybe she is so completely frustrated by the controlling men around her, or in her father's case, those who still control her from the grave, that she finds a new way to communicate outside of the language that men use. Through use of song, Ophelia communicates a story of a maid who is cruelly scorned by her lover after she relents to let him sleep with her. Ophelia sings: "By Gis and by Saint Charity, Alack and fie for shame! Young men will do't if they come to't, By Clock they are to blame. Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed' 'So would I'a'done, by yonder sun, And thou hadst not come to my bed.'" (4.5.118) During this scene in Branagh's movie, Ophelia lies on her back and thrusts her pelvis in the air, presumably simulating intercourse with Hamlet. This depiction communicates Ophelia's feelings of betrayal and frustration with Hamlet and with her society's sexual politics in which men are allowed sexual freedom but women are denied the same. In her essay Showalter quotes Hamlet and Ophelia during the Mouse-trap scene when Hamlet uses cruel word play to describe the "nothing" that he believes lies between Ophelia's legs (222). Hamlet's insult is founded in the patriarchal theory that women are lacking phalluses; and therefore, that they are deprived of "thought, sexuality, and language," writes Showalter (222). Hamlet's theory has been proved false by actors, directors and critics such as Showalter, though. Her feminist approach to interpreting modern and historical presentations of Hamlet also lends itself well to interpreting Branagh's movie version of the play, but feminist theory is already present in Branagh's movie to some extent. Through his use of flashbacks and visual imagery reminiscent of other depictions of Ophelia on stage, in art, and in psychiatric theory, Branagh presents a sex-obsessed patriarchal society that convincingly drives Ophelia to suicide. This characterization of a male society that suppresses women's sexuality shows the bond that Showalter argues exists between the representation of female sexuality and female insanity. So, by using feminist theory to show these bonds in Branagh's Hamlet, Showalter's goal to conclude with "a fuller sense of the responsibilities of feminist criticism, as well a new perspective on Ophelia" is achieved (224). "Movie Essay - Applying Showalter’s Idea’s to Branagh's Film of Hamlet." 123HelpMe.com. 23 Mar 2011 .