Hamlet Analysis Essay, Research Paper

Viewing and Analysis a) In the in which Aphelia returns tokens of love from him

(Hamlet), William Shakespeare portrays Hamlet as first as a normal man, but then

as Aphelia returns his tokens of love, he seems to enter his ?so-called?

state of madness. Shakespeare seems to reflect him as a character that just

suddenly hits madness when he is turned down by Aphelia, which is the reason

that all the people in the kingdom seem to believe he is mad. Hamlet claims he

will pretend be in a state of madness, but in this scene he simply for no reason

that Shakespeare presents he goes mad. Shakespeare also does not explain

Hamlet?s sudden outburst of madness. This madness of Hamlet?s suddenly arose

when Aphelia said, ?My honour?d lord, I know right what you did; ? Rich

gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.? Now up until this

line Hamlet acted in a very sane manner, but after she tells him this he seems

to loose it. He replied, ?Ha, ha! Are you honest?? Aphelia: ?My lord??

Hamlet: ?Are You Fair? Aphelia: ?What mean?s your lordship?? Hamlet:

?That if you honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your

beauty? In this line Hamlet seems to be telling Aphelia that her beauty is

manipulating. In this scene Hamlet also goes on to ask about Polonius, and then

yells out ?Let all the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool

nowhere but in?s own house? While Hamlet is saying all this, what he does

not know is that Polonius and the King are spying on Hamlet during this lashing

out by Hamlet. Now seeing as how Shakespeare does not seem to tell us at all as

to how Hamlet could know that the King was there, watching and listening. Since

that Hamlet did not know that they were there, any viewer of this play would not

understand Hamlet?s sudden madness and have reason to believe the his feigned

madness drives him to actual madness. b) Zeffirelli portrays Hamlet a more then

your average person. He seems to display Hamlet as a highly intelligent, quick

thinking person. He seems to emphasize Hamlet?s awareness over and over again.

In the scene in which Aphelia returns tokens of love from him, Zeffirelli shows

Hamlet?s awareness and intuitiveness. Now, in the scene when Aphelia says to

Hamlet, ?My honour?d lord, I know right what you did; ? Rich gifts wax

poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.? and returns his tokens, Hamlet

turns away for a split second, and notices a shadow of a person in the top

walking by. At that very moment Hamlet realizes that he is being watched and

realizes it?s most probably the king. So at that very moment Hamlet turns

around and goes back and says the following things: ?Ha, ha! Are you

honest?? Aphelia: ?My lord?? Hamlet: ?Are You Fair? Aphelia: ?What

mean?s your lordship?? Hamlet: ?That if you honest and fair, your honesty

should admit no discourse to your beauty? In this scene Hamlet also goes on to

ask about Polonius, and then yells out ?Let all the doors be shut upon him,

that he may play the fool nowhere but in?s own house? While Hamlet is saying

all this, what he does know that Polonius and the King are spying on him during

this lashing out by towards Polonius. The whole reasoning behind Hamlets faking

this state of madness is that he believes that the King is responsible for the

death of his father. And so by saying things that have a double meaning during

his ?madness? maybe he will be able to get the King to show some guilt or

even break him down until he finally confesses to the murder. Now with that

sudden change in Hamlet?s behavior after spotting the shadow he goes into this

madness state of his showing to people that he is faking this, only because he

knows the ones whom he wants aware of his madness, are aware. C) Zeffirelli?s

actions in changing the scene can be justified. First off, the idea of making

the shadow of Polonius visible was one which was a good one because it let

everyone that was viewing the movie know that Hamlet had not really gone mad but

was doing this because he realized he had to keep on playing this role.

Secondly, when directors create a movie it is made so that audiences watch the

movies, had he not put the Shadow in most people would have believed Hamlet had

gone mad, and would not understand how at the end of the movie or in the next

scenes be able to reveal all the truth to the people. Third, the shadow also

added to how Zeffirelli kept on portraying Hamlet as an intelligent, aware and

intuitive character that her was. Zeffirelli had also show this great awareness

that Hamlet had when Polonius was talking to Aphelia about not seeing Hamlet and

when he picked up as to what was going on. And a fourth reason is that

Zeffirelli had to make this movie as entertaining as possible, because that?s

what all directors do. They change the script, change the scenes, and just about

anything else to make the movie entertaining.

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