Hamlet And Roger Ebert: Character Analysis

Hamlet was deeply depressed about his father's death, in this quote he couldn't even speak in complete sentences so you can see how much this affected Hamlet and how it took a toll on him. Hamlet overcome this obstacle by taking revenge for his father and killing his uncle for the murder of his father. Hamlet was also going through other obstacles because right after his father death his mother married his father's killer which is his uncle. Hamlet was bummed about this and really disappointed in his mother's actions. In the Play Hamlet said “she married.

Hamlet is a pessimistic man who simply cannot see the positive aspects in his life. He attempts to justify the fact that the death of his father has left him with nothing to live for. In fact,

Determining whether someone is insane or sane is very difficult to do. Looking at the actions of the individuals does not give the full picture. Hamlet plays the role of an insane man in order to get revenge on Claudius. Hamlet only tells Horatio and his mother that he is pretending while others believe he is insane. There are some that believe that Hamlet is insane due to the loss of his father but their evidence is not very strong. By looking at examples from the play that show Hamlet is pretending to be insane, we will clearly see that Hamlet is very successful in the act of being mad.

His mother and his uncle have married after only 2 months of Hamlet’s father’s death. This has caused Hamlet to be in a heavy state of anger, mixed with his already deep state of mourning. According to Theodore Lidz, these two states can lead to one thinking back on all the negative wishes one may have had in the past. Considering Hamlet’s relatively young age, death wishes upon a parent are not serious but they are common among children. “…and as most, if not all, children have sometimes had death wishes toward a parent, guilt over such wishes can become intense when the parent dies.” (Lidz 48) All of these emotions mixed together so early in the play could lead to a sense of depression.

Over the relatively short time line of the story Shakespeare shows Hamlet internally direct this melancholy towards a warring state of resolve, yet with confusion about how things have gotten to this surreal point, “I have of late, but wherefore I/ know not, lost all my mirth / … / and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition”(2.2.257,258,259) The reality of the situation overwhelms Hamlet, Shakespeare alludes to this in Hamlet’s references to bad dreams while speaking with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, “… were it not that I have bad dreams. / … / A dream itself is but a shadow” (2.2.231.16, 231.21). Not only does this appear to be alluding to the situation of his father’s death, his mother’s marrying his uncle, and his father’s ghost crying out for revenge, but here, is a hint of foreshadowing of his descent. Life is a whirlpool of events with the only foreseeable path out of it is toward revenge. It is this that has Hamlet questioning life itself:

When we first meet Hamlet, he is dressed all in black and conveys all the “moods, forms and shapes of grief”. This depression is caused by his father’s recent death. Gertrude, his mother and

Hamlet was given too short of a period to let the fact of death sink; a great depression is set upon himself. Hamlet tries to explain how the world is not of use to him, “How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / seem to me all the uses of the world!”, but he does not realize the cause of these thoughts. Since Hamlet’s parents have been of no help to satisfy his needs, Hamlet feels as nobody cares. Further in this soliloquy, Hamlet clarifies the idolization he gave to King Hamlet, his father. The depressiveness coming from Hamlet is solely to do with the lack of respect given to someone he cares for. If Hamlet has a reaction like this for the carelessness of others, it can foreshadow much greater states of melancholy leading to irresponsible

He is internally reflecting on the morality of revenge. In existentialism, it is believed that the best way to live is for man to accept disorder and nothingness because ignoring it would mean settling into a delusional security blanket. If this blanket is torn off, we are forced to face it abruptly. Hamlet becomes conflicted in this way during the play. His father’s death, learning about the murder and adultery, and facing the morality of revenge all quake his previous orderly life.Now, he must figure out what is right and wrong and what to do as he contemplates the noble idea of avenging his father’s death versus his own misanthropic view of human nature.

Hamlet directed by Michael Almereyda took a modern approach to the classic Shakespearean play. The modern version is set in the year 2000 in New York City a big stretch from the original play. Denmark is not a country anymore but instead a corporation. The movie still follows the original plot in the play. With the evil uncle now becoming CEO of the company, after his brother's sudden death. He marries his widow wife while his son Hamlet begins to see his father's ghost.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a story about a king that was murdered by his brother and the prince has been asked by his father?s ghost to avenge his murder. The original story line has been altered a few times since it has been written. The original Hamlet the play and the altered Hamlet the movie are shown differently in many different ways. Hamlet the movie with Mel Gibson shows different things than the play, but there are three major differences between the two. The three major differences are in the way both of the productions start out, differences in the scene that the players put on a play, and differences in the way the productions end.

In Act I of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince Hamlet suffers an existential crisis. Claudius tries to convince Hamlet that his heartbreak is “sweet and commendable,” but eventually everyone dies, and his “filial obligation” has been fulfilled (I.ii.87-92). This rattles Hamlet’s perspective about life. His grief overwhelms him, and he is stunned by the fact that his uncle and his mother seem indifferent to the loss of their king. He wonders if life really matters since the throne and the court have so easily replaced his father. Hamlet laments that life is “weary, stale, and flat, and unprofitable”; indeed, he starts to believe that everything will just rot in the end (I.ii.134-137). He wonders what the point of life is if all seems unexplainable

Hamlet feels the constant need to reassure himself that his beliefs are correct, especially in his soliloquies about death. It is stated, “O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!...” (Act 1, Sn 2, 129-1559). Hamlet discusses how things were not good and he was just in mourning and despair in this soliloquy. In the noted to be or not be soliloquy he continues the decisions on death, “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer, The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?...” (Act 3, Sn 1, 56-89). As Hamlet continues through the play he gives up in a sense because of everything happening to the people he was close to and to him in general. He lost the people he cared about due to his uncle’s careless actions and his mother playing along with it. When he actually got emotion from his uncle things were only proven to be more complicated because his father’s ghost was correct. His soliloquies prove how Hamlet was overly depressed and wanted to die, although depression during this time period is completely different compared to now.

It would be hard to argue the fact that William Shakespeare is one of the greatest contributors to modern English as we know it, his plays and sonnets have been turned into movies, books, and music as well as translated into virtually every language. With that being said, one of his most famous plays is Hamlet. Many movies were based off of this play and a very popular one is Hamlet directed by Franco Zeffirelli. This drama film was produced on December 19th, 1990 and was around 134 minutes long. This movie based off of Shakespeare’s most famous work was a hit, raking in approximately $20.7 million in the box office. Zeffirelli’s motive in making the movie was to make Shakespeare available and interesting to younger viewers. Franco Zeffirelli was successful in recreating the play Hamlet, as the movie added extreme depth to the play making it appealing to all viewers.

Hamlet is often ranked on the top among with someone of William Shakespeare's influential and powerful plays. Most say the “To be or not to be”(Shakespeare, 3.1.57) is the most impactful speech in all Shakespeare’s plays. This speech by itself describes the character of Hamlet forms the entire play. A lot of directors have tried to make the play into movies but only some have succeeded. Four movie versions of “To be or not to be”(Shakespeare, 3.1.57) speech attempt to convey deep tone and clear message but only director Zeffirelli’s version does a decent job. Other versions such as Doran, Branagh, and Almereyda fall short in terms of setting, acting of the performer, and expression.

William Shakespeare once said that “brevity is the soul of wit.” This is heavily evident in regards to Hamlet and all of his short, witty comments throughout the play. In Act I Scene II Hamlet 's wit comes out in full force during a discussion with his mother, Gertrude, and his uncle/stepfather, Claudius, with Hamlet’s very first words in the play: