How Has Your Interpretation of Hamlet Changed?
- Submitted by: jake
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- Category: English: Plays
- Date Submitted: 08/15/2010 08:28 PM
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How has your interpretation of hamlet changed? Refer to Bondi Production and Zeffirelli.
The play Hamlet was written by Shakespeare in 1601. Since then there has been many re-enactments of the play, differed by the interpretation of the director. After watching Zeffirelli’s version as my own introduction to the play, it seemed like a drama based around solely on a tragic revenge story. But after analyzing and breaking down the play and watching another version of the production in Bond by Ritchy. Dominant features in my mind about the play is Hamlets nature is too methodical, cunning and smart to be truly as mad and the constant deception or disguise from most of the characters in the play.
As Hamlet does say he is putting on an “antic dispostion” there is some speculation to whether he is truly mad or just pretending. As stated previously I interpret Hamlet’s character as too smart and methodical to be actually mad. An example of this is when Hamlet says I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. Hamlet admits to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that even though he's acting like a raving lunatic, he definitely has his wits about him. In other words, he knows they've been sent by Claudius to spy on him. This scene also includes deception as Rosencrantz and Guildernstern disguise themselves as Hamlets friends but are really just spying on him. This deception of being two faced, conveys the fact that no one can be trusted in this play
Another example of this interpretation is the scene where Hamlet is approached by Polonius as he is reading. In this scene Hamlet is acting quite eccentric, when Polonius asks what Hamlet is reading and he simply replies with, “Words, words, words”. This is a prime example of how he is just acting as he is only just mocking Polonius because he knows Polonius is a deceptive person and is not to be trusted. In the Bondi Production by Ritchy, Hamlet seemed less interested in mocking him...
The play Hamlet was written by Shakespeare in 1601. Since then there has been many re-enactments of the play, differed by the interpretation of the director. After watching Zeffirelli’s version as my own introduction to the play, it seemed like a drama based around solely on a tragic revenge story. But after analyzing and breaking down the play and watching another version of the production in Bond by Ritchy. Dominant features in my mind about the play is Hamlets nature is too methodical, cunning and smart to be truly as mad and the constant deception or disguise from most of the characters in the play.
As Hamlet does say he is putting on an “antic dispostion” there is some speculation to whether he is truly mad or just pretending. As stated previously I interpret Hamlet’s character as too smart and methodical to be actually mad. An example of this is when Hamlet says I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. Hamlet admits to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that even though he's acting like a raving lunatic, he definitely has his wits about him. In other words, he knows they've been sent by Claudius to spy on him. This scene also includes deception as Rosencrantz and Guildernstern disguise themselves as Hamlets friends but are really just spying on him. This deception of being two faced, conveys the fact that no one can be trusted in this play
Another example of this interpretation is the scene where Hamlet is approached by Polonius as he is reading. In this scene Hamlet is acting quite eccentric, when Polonius asks what Hamlet is reading and he simply replies with, “Words, words, words”. This is a prime example of how he is just acting as he is only just mocking Polonius because he knows Polonius is a deceptive person and is not to be trusted. In the Bondi Production by Ritchy, Hamlet seemed less interested in mocking him...