{"id":10143,"date":"2020-03-01T21:05:38","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T02:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=10143"},"modified":"2020-03-01T19:19:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T00:19:52","slug":"shakespeare-in-film-part-4-hamlet-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/01\/shakespeare-in-film-part-4-hamlet-introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare in Film \u2013 Part 4 \u2013 Hamlet \u2013 Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakespeare\u2019s strongest plays are the tragedies.\u00a0 The comedies have their merits and the pure histories have some very engaging characters like Falstaff and Prince Hal.\u00a0 But the heavy hitters are Macbeth, King Lear, Richard III, Othello, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet and most especially Hamlet.\u00a0 Even the most ardent fan of the Bard will have scenes and characters that he dislikes even in his favorite play.\u00a0 In fact, some plays are favorites only because of some especially powerful scene or character.\u00a0 They are valued despite plot weaknesses or sections of dialogue or characters that disappoint.\u00a0 And Hamlet is no exception.\u00a0 I am sure every fan of the play dislikes some aspect of it.\u00a0 But I will say that overall, the plot and the dialog exceed the other plays in how they engage the audience.\u00a0 The characters are drawn in a lifelike way.\u00a0 Even the villain is real.\u00a0 And in the hands of a skilled cast, the play is fascinating to watch.<\/p>\n

The character of Hamlet is famously defined by his indecision.\u00a0 He has been commanded by his father\u2019s ghost to exact vengeance against his murderer.\u00a0 What could be more absolute than that?\u00a0 And yet he vacillates throughout the play and is only goaded into action by his own assassination.\u00a0 All this is obviously true but the action of the play shows us that this indecision is mostly due to his virtues and not his faults.\u00a0 He is a noble, loyal, virtuous, intellectual, pious prince.\u00a0 And all these instincts and talents work against his need to commit justifiable regicide.\u00a0 His tender love for his mother is an almost insurmountable obstacle to exacting vengeance on her villainous husband.\u00a0 His sense of justice prevents him from striking down his enemy when he believes that the timing, coming as the murderer is in prayer, would allow his victim\u2019s soul to gain heaven instead of casting him down into hell.\u00a0 His intellect even forbids him from escaping his problems through suicide.\u00a0 He reasons through the consequences and arrives at the conclusion that possibly the afterlife might be filled with greater torment still.\u00a0 He is a man haunted by the wreckage of his family, his life and even his sanity.\u00a0 Think of what he has endured.\u00a0 He has spoken with his father\u2019s ghost, a thing more harrowing than any mortal occurrence.\u00a0 His mother\u2019s husband is his uncle, his father\u2019s murderer and his king all at the same time and he must face him day in and out while his mother displays passionate affection for her husband\u2019s murderer.\u00a0 In order to dissemble his intentions, he plays at being mad and in doing so he loses the woman he loves.\u00a0 There is literally no path available to him that doesn\u2019t involve unthinkable crimes and madness.\u00a0 I suppose indecision might be excused under such circumstances.<\/p>\n

But plot aside, it is the language of the play that engages me.\u00a0 Hamlet is filled with phrases and thoughts that we meet everywhere in cultured discourse:<\/p>\n