Perspectives on Hamlet in Film Adaptations

In reading, perspective plays a key role in allowing the reader to personally decipher their own view of a scene. Film allows the reader to express this unique view, sharing it with others, and simultaneously giving the audience a new angle on the matters at hand. With his play, Hamlet, Shakespeare leaves much space for interpretation, and film adaptations of the tragedy create many different views on the same story. In Shakespeare’s play, the main character, Hamlet, pursues taking revenge on his uncle turned step-father after his uncle, Claudius, killed his father, King Hamlet. One take on the character of Hamlet is displayed in director Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation. In one particular scene, Branagh develops the character that is Hamlet,

clarifying his own view of the character through the film. Through Branagh’s portrayal, he emphasizes Hamlet’s underlying struggles, his uncertainty towards death, and especially the madness that consumes him.
An important scene of the play is an encounter between Hamlet and his past love, Ophelia. Recently before the encounter, Ophelia broke off her relationship with Hamlet at the request of her father, Polonius. In this scene, while Hamlet speaks passionately to Ophelia, he fails to know that both Polonius and Claudius watch the entire exchange in hopes of determining a root to Hamlet’s recent madness. But prior to Ophelia’s entrance unto the scene, Hamlet speaks to himself while Polonius and Claudius look on. Hamlet passionately says, “For who would bear the whips and scorns of time…The insolence of office and the spurns/That patient merit of the unworthy takes,/When he himself might his quietus make/With a bare bodkin?” (III.i.69-75). In this scene, Hamlet directly questions why he should keep on living through the struggles of life when escape is as simple as killing oneself. Branagh’s version of the scene emphasizes this specific question of whether or not Hamlet should kill himself; in the scene, Hamlet speaks to a mirror, holding a “bodkin”, or a dagger, towards his own image while questioning this conflict. Rather than interpreting Hamlet’s question as it is directed towards humanity, Branagh instead leans the scene significantly towards the distinct question of suicide. By directing the dagger towards his own image, and at one point holding it against his face, Hamlet specifies the issue of his own life, and the seemingly likely chance of him taking this matter into his own hands.
In the same scene, while Hamlet peers into what he thinks is just his own image, behind the mirror is rather Polonius and Claudius peering staring back at him during what Hamlet believes to be a personal moment. As Hamlet proclaims, “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,/And thus the native hue of resolution/Is sickled o’er with the pale cast of thought,/And enterprises of great pith and moment/With this regard their current turn awry/And lose the name of action” (III.i.82-86). Hamlet explains how excuses and overthinking hold you back from what you truly wish to accomplish, emphasizing how thoughts may turn people into cowards. Though Hamlet speaks these words to himself, the irony that Branagh creates in the scene is the men standing right in front of Hamlet, yet out of his view. For Claudius, he lacked thought, instead working too much on his ambitions that led him to kill King Hamlet, yet Claudius literally reflects back on Hamlet in this scene. By placing Claudius behind the mirror that Hamlet is facing, Branagh metaphorically emphasizes Hamlet’s underlying conflicts with his ambitions; if he were to follow Claudius, this lack of thought could be detrimental, yet by clouding himself over too much with thought, he may not be able to act when necessary. Hamlet’s essence of internal torments is emphasized as he is torn between two options that have the power to greatly affect his future.
What may be most enhanced by Branagh is Hamlet’s madness.

Not only is Hamlet portrayed as faking his unstable mental state, but Branagh portrays Hamlet to lack much of his mental control. This madness can be most seen when Ophelia enters the scene with Hamlet; Hamlet rushes over to her, kissing her and acting completely in love, but this sense of compassion soon disappears when Ophelia attempts to give back “remembrances” that he gave her. His attitude darkens quickly as he denies giving her remembrances in the first place, and soon he is engulfed by a fit of rage. Throughout the rest of the scene, Hamlet’s emotions fluctuate repeatedly between anger and calm, as at some points he switches quickly from screaming and speaking very quickly to almost a whisper. Through Shakespeare’s writing the reader can identify Hamlet’s anger as he feels almost betrayed by Ophelia, but Branagh’s interpretation greatly enhances the overall madness that Hamlet is expressing. In addition to his shifting emotions, his actions towards Ophelia vary greatly as well; in the beginning he is kissing her, but soon after he is violently dragging her around on the floor, then again back to calm compassion. Branagh’s use of contrasting Hamlet’s emotions in this scene truly emphasizes Hamlet’s madness as his emotions irrationally change throughout his interaction with

Ophelia.
Branagh’s portrayal of Hamlet in this scene acts as an enhancement of Hamlet’s character as portrayed by Shakespeare. The fundamental basis of Hamlet’s character is amplified through this scene with the use of contrast and metaphor. The film gives the audience more insight on not only the director’s perspective, but allows them to open up their own outlook on the essence of the character. In Hamlet’s soliloquy in the scene, Branagh highlights Hamlet’s suicidal thoughts in favor of those surrounding humanity as a whole, in addition to Hamlet’s inner conflict by contrasting Hamlet to Claudius. Most enhanced is Hamlet’s madness; with Ophelia’s entrance, his emotions swing greatly, similar to that of a madman. Through Branagh’s depiction of Hamlet, he places an overall emphasis on Hamlet’s strong personal issues that continuously threaten to harm him as his challenges increase.