Analysis : Hamlet
Table of Contents:
Hamlet's Characterization and it's Effect on the Play
Ophelia:More than Meets the Eye
The Question of Horatio's Importance
The Characterization of Hamlet's Parents
Since we have no detailed knowledge on how Shakespeare intended to play Hamlet, or even which version of Hamlet he staged, the play itself is open to interpretation and adaption. What is the correct way to play Hamlet and its characters? That is completely up to the director and the actor of the particular production in which it is being presented.
Watching two different productions of Hamlet can present you with two completely different sets of characters and two different effects of the play as a whole. Franco Zeffirelli’s 1991 version of Hamlet, starring Mel Gibson in the title role, featured a powerful, crazed Hamlet, a weak Horatio, a remorseful Claudius, and a beautiful, young, naïve Gertrude. All of this contributed to a non-tragic ending for the star of the play, Hamlet. In contrast to Mel Gibson’s non-tragic Hamlet is Simon Russell Beale’s Hamlet who was played as a “Sweet” prince who heroically attempts to avenge his father’s death.
W.B Worthen references Michael Almereyda’s 2000 production of Hamlet in his book Shakespeare Performance Studies when he states, “Productions like [these] insist that performance is not simply the transfer of scripted ‘information’ to a different, nontextual platform of representation” (152). In that statement Worthen is referencing the fact that Almereyda attempts to bring Hamlet into the 21st century by including video and use of technology into the production. Like Almereyda’s Hamlet, each production of this play has its own culture and time period that it reflects, or represents in the production itself.
Each version of Hamlet represents a different interpretation of the Bard’s play. The goal in putting on a production of Hamlet is not to simply relay the text to an audience, but instead to being the text to life before their eyes. In accomplishing that feat, many directors and actors differ in their interpretations which is why we have drastically varying performances of the same play.
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