Hamlet is a great story. This is not an opinion. It's a fact--a fact that is proven given its still vast popularity over 400 years after it was written. One that is proven given it was written by Shakespeare, an undisputed literary genius. Just as one can not deny Tom Brady's greatness even if they themselves do not like him, there is no denying the greatness of Hamlet.
With that in mind, though, I believe that by reading Hamlet, readers sacrifice much of the work's brilliance. Hamlet is a play. It was written to be a play! It was written to be watched! No matter how well-translated the story may be or how good the footnotes may be, reading it simply doesn't do it justice. Although Hamlet is still often performed by various casts, watching the play is not always a plausible option. Firstly, it's unlikely that an iteration of the play is running near you when you want to experience it. Secondly, in order to truly study Hamlet, a play isn't a very feasible option, as you have to watch it straight through. With a movie, you are able to visualize the scenes (as intended) and you are able to pause the film in order to analyze important speeches. For these reasons, I believe watching Hamlet as a film is the best way to experience it.
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4 comments:
Wow I finally can agree with you on one of your blog posts. I also prefer watching Hamlet being performed in movie or play rather than reading it. I am sure we can all agree that reading and actually understanding many of the lines is very difficult to do! It is hard to comprehend the expression and emotions of the characters and also whether they are being serious or sarcastic. Since we started the play, I have been reading it out loud to my self in like an "old-english" accent to try and pretend I was the speaker. While this help my brain analyze what exactly is going on, I still have trouble judging the internal thoughts of everyone and the true meaning of what they are saying. When we watched the play in class, everything was so much clearer! Being able to see the facial expressions and hear the tone of the actors voices allowed me to figure out all the meanings behind each line spoken. This has allowed me to realize how clever Shakespeare actually is with all of his puns and secret meanings. Actually very entertaining play to watch! I am thoroughly enjoying this fantastic work of art!
I couldn't agree more with this blog post. Usually, the book is preferred to the movie version of something because the movie will usually cut out parts or change an element of the book entirely. However, the Hamlet movie that we have been watching is very faithful to the original play. I was thinking about how Hamlet was meant to be watched instead of just being read as well. While there is no problem experiencing it with just reading, watching the movie paints a better picture for what is going on and how characters feel in a certain moment. There are a few times while I was reading that I could not exactly visualize what was going on nor could I interpret the character's emotion in the moment. For example, when reading the part about Hamlet making a bunch of sexual jokes toward Ophelia, I couldn't tell she was actually uncomfortable until watching that part in the movie. Watching the movie thus solves this problem for me and helps me with my analysis of the important quotes and speeches like you mention.
I agree, Bennett. When watching the movie in class, I found that watching it helped me pick up on tone much easier. Some things that I thought were just general statements were supposed to be jokes or expressed with anger. I find this is especially true with Shakespeare's plays because of the language. Seeing firsthand how the characters react to each other is really essential to understanding the play. Watching the movie also helps me to understand a lot of the double meanings in Hamlet's speech.
I believe that most of us can agree with the blog post, and that there is nothing quite like seeing a Shakespearean play in action. I would also like to agree with both Rico and Ben that emotion and inflection can be very hard to tell when reading, especially when the writing is riddled with slang and phrases from the late 16th centaury. I would also like to add on, though, that pacing is much harder to tell in writing, too. The different pauses a character might take as action goes on around them that isn't expressly defined in the script, or the speed they might talk in. While reading Hamlet, I excepted Hamlet to talk slowly because I was reading it slowly. But while watching the movie, the rapidity that he spoke in made much more sense and gave a much better sense of his quick wit. Also while watching, you can actually see all of the actions that go on with the dialog. In the written script, actions aren't usually described beyond entering and exiting, but watching the play in action gives much more meaning to what the characters are saying and can make the script much more understandable. For example, I was confused when I read the scene about the play because I could only see the dialogue, but none of what else that was going on. Watching it a few days later helped to really put all the pieces together.
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