R.I.P Ophelia

Ophelia, young beautiful Ophelia, it is a travesty that you were taken from this world so quickly. I didn't know you too well, but I just know the type of person you were, kind, gentle, and by the looks of it a wonderful daughter and sister. You never questioned your father, always loving to him, and respected him and his commands. You listened to your brother, and offered him insight as well. It wasn't hard to see your loyalty, Infact it was as clear as day. What many of you may not know, or rather may not acknowledge, is just how much love and trust was in young Ophelia's heart. Ophelia was madly in love with flowers... I guess you could say she loved them to death. If Ophelia were here right this moment she wouldn't able to stand the dark and gloomy presence, infact she would try to make things prettier, with some flowers, and infact her overall beautiful soul would just be torch in such dark times. 

Ophelia I know by all means that you are up there right now looking down, and in peace. Too good for this world, you deserve to rest eternally in peace with all the flowers you can get your hands on. The fact that you are gone, it just haunts me. To be taken because by the madness that overcame you due to others and their reckless behavior? Due to your devotion, love and admiration towards your father? It's that kind of love and devotion that will influence me for the rest of my life. You taught me that. That love is the most important thing you have to give, but you must be careful who you give it to. Dear Ophelia, may you rest in peace.

Hurry up Hamlet

Hamlet has had a plan, he's had a plan from the very beginning: kill Claudius. Whether or not he is insane for seeing the ghost, or considering murder isn't what I am going to be talking about today, but instead the thought process of Hamlet, and whether or not he should've just killed him in act 3. I believe yes; he should've. To quote Dylan Mee "20 seconds of courage." I feel like the root of Hamlets indecision is fear, the fear of taking someone else's life. Revenge is never the answer "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" but he wants to do this. He won't be stopped, so waiting till cladius is in sin is a magnificently stupid idea. They tell you not to procrastinate with the little things, what makes him think procrastinating murder is ever a good idea?

Understanding why he didn't might be but larger than what you would think, other than the whole "killing is wrong" "revenge is bad" how about the religious aspect? In the religion Claudius would not be dammed to hell, which obviously plays a major role, however, what everyone just seems to forget: Hamlets perception of death. In his "to be or not to be" soliloquy he makes his opinion on death very apparent, so on a deeper level, in Hamlet's eyes would he completely be doing Claudius a favor? The hardest part in killing yourself is the fear of what comes after, but if he is killed in repentance he is either resting eternally  not having to face the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", or he is granted to heaven. This could honestly go either way, but I believe ultimately he should've just done it. 

O.B Famous Hamlet Soliloquy Movie Interpretations

Hamlets soliloquy in the opening scene of act three is one of the most well known soliloquies, you've practically heard about it since you were a kid, but never quite knew where it was from. With it being so well known, and not having the pleasure to see Shakespeare original play enacted for us, this scene is interpreted by many in many different ways. We'll focus in on Olivier's take, Zeffirelli's take, Branagh's take, and lastly Almereyda's take on the breath taking soliloquy. 

The setting in each was different. Starting with Olivier's, which took place on the top of some sort of cliff overlooking a body of water, unique take on the setting alone. The stmbolism I believe the cliff holds with the speech is mind blowing. He's standing on a cliff thinking about suicide, but also goes on to talk about why no one can pull the trigger, I feel with this setting alone he is able to convey that very well. It puts the image of hamlet kinda having the ability, having a gun, and the want to blow his brains out, but can't. All this with just the setting.

I feel like once again Branagh kinda just let me down. I'll say that this scene might possibly reflect the play the most accurately with the setting. 

Zeffirelli on the other hand did not let me down at all, in his unique take on Hamlet's soliloquy, he has Hamlet enter a cellar, but not just any cold dark cellar, one filled with dead bodies. As decends into darkness from the high level of light I. ant help but feel that Zeffirelli trying to tell us going crazy, or better yet, Hamlet is getting darker and darker on the inside. The symbolism in the first five seconds of him just slowly walking down the steps speaks volumes without hamlet having to say a word.

As I've said before, it's much harder to compare the modern take on Hamlet, directed by Almereyda, to the older one, but that doesn't mean it's not good. In fact the symbolism in this one might quite possibly be the strongest. We open up the scene, and he is in a simple old Blockbuster. What's so special about a place that went out of business years ago? If you take a closer look, yes he is in a blockbuster, but where in the blockbuster is he? Specifically, what genre is he browsing? Action, and I'll tie it back to to Olivier's version, and say this, did hamlet take any of the action movies. He didn't take any action? To add on to the suicidal Hamlet not being able to take action, the music, the only take to use music, was just so depressing and unfulfilling. All in all, all scenes had their strengths, and all scenes excelled in opening your eyes to new perspectives.

O.B Hamlet Ghost Scene Portrayal in Movies

     Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most well known pieces, even so where it has three highly regarded directors in Franco Zeffirelli, who has tackled Romeo and Juliet as well, Kenneth Branagh, who has directed or starred in many adaptations of Shakespeare, and Michael Almereyda, a director most well known for his modern take on Hamlet. I believe that Zeffirelli's take on the ghost scene out of the three was by far the best. When first reading it, I envisioned this as an emotional scene, very eerie and heart filled. I believe that Mel Gibson was able to portray the proper emotions in the proper order which was: fear and distress, sadness and sorrow, and lastly fury and wrath.
      Meanwhile Branagh made it more about the death rather than the emotional burden this scene must of had on Hamlet, I feel like Branagh was just scared, then kind of skimmed through sadness and anger. When you throw in the music and how there was none in the Zeffirelli's version, just an ominous howl of the wind, while you had this joyous music in Branagh's version, it just continued to kinda make the scene worse. The Branagh version just completely threw me off, it left me with the sense that Hamlet was fulfilled? Like the movie was ending and that I should in a way be happy for Hamlet, but that's not the case at all.
     All in all I believe that Zeffirelli's interpretation of the scene was leaps and bounds ahead of Branagh's version. Comparing the two to Almereyda's version is a little bit harder because he set it in a modern day world, which really kinda changes the game. All in all I feel like sticking to what Shakespeare wrote, Zeffirelli's version takes it, while Almereyda's version had it strengths in the symbolism, but still wasn't quite there, while Branagh's take was just a complete let down. Sometimes the creative approach doesn't always work.