Hamlet (1996)

Thomas
I think it's a thriller, because much people will die. And I think that it will be great, I want the fight to be very spectaculair and emotionel and that's precisely what I'm expacting of the fights. So I'm looking foward to seeing the film

Harm
I had already seen this film, so I didn't had expactations, because I already knew the film.

Simon
After reading the summary of the film, I knew what the film was all about. I knwe the whole story. Still, I was expecting a real 'Braveheart'-like movie with a lot of violence. Possibly because Mel Gibson played in it. If I had thought a little bit harder I should have known it wasn't like that. Last year I acted in a play by shakespeare –Macbeth- and I already knew what shakespaere stories where all about.
On the whole I expected a really great film.

Niels
I didn't had any expatations.

Answers on question three to twelve

3a When we take Hamlet in consideration, you see that he has a complicated personality. Do you like him? Why or why not?

Hamlet is a very clever guy. Everybody thinks that he's mad, but it's all fake. That's why I like Hamlet very much, because he's fooling them all. Another thing about Hamlet that I appreciate very much is, that he was crazy about a girl from a lower class, he didn't feel himself any better then others, because he was a prince. The father of that girl thought that Hamlet tried to use his daughter, but it was real love.
He loved his father very much, and he was determined to kill the murderer of his dad and at the end when he's almost dying he kills his uncle and took his revenge. Another thing I liked about Hamlet is that he loved his mother very much although she married the murderer of his father.

3b Try to give a description of Hamlet at each of this moments. How does he behave, what is his temper like?

* When the whole castle is having a feast, Hamlet wants to talk to the ghost of his father. He thinks other nations detest them because his "friends" are drinking to much. He also detest this parties, and doesn't understands why they're drinking to much.

* At the moment the ghost appears he's very afraid, anxious. But he wants to know what's going on so he follows the ghost, although the others tried to stop him. When the ghost tells him that hamlet his father is murdered, he's very shocked, especially because his uncle, who's the king at the moment and who is married to his mother, is the murderer. Hamlet is very angry and is determined to kill his uncle just like his father told him to do. He is angry because it was an act of cowardice, just sneeking up on his father, when he was a sleep, and poison him. When the ghost is gone he's very confused and he doesn't know what just happened to him.

* When Oophelia returns his gift he pretends that it doesn't matters to him and that he never loved her anyway. He also pretends that he's mad but that isn't true. He's very sad that she returns his gift but he don't want to show that to her and her father who's listening. That's also the reason that he plays a mad man.

* At the play he also pretends that he's mad but he's fixated on the reaction of his uncle. He's very nervous because this is the moment he will discover if the ghost was right or wrong, it is the hour of truth. The king goes mad at that moment because he knows that someone got to know about the murder. This makes Hamlet very happy, and he told his friend Horatius that his uncle was the murderer.

* Just before he kills Polonius he was very angry at his mother because he thought that his mother forgot his father, when he saw the carpet moving he killed Polonius who was standing behind the carpet. While stabbing into the man behind the carpet he thinks the man is his uncle. When he finds out the man behind the carpet isn't his uncle, but Polonius he doesn't care that he killed Polonius because the man made the mistake to interfere with him. This makes him very sad. After this happens he told his mother that he just pretends to be mad. And she promised to keep it as a secret.

* On the boat to England he shows how smart he really is, he changes the letters, and this saves his life, because the king gave the orders to kill Hamlet. Hamlet acted very coolheaded.

* At the grave he was very suprised to see his old friend Yorick, this was the old skeleton-head. He thinks back about that time, it makes him smile. A few minutes later he saw Ophelia lying at the grave, she wasdead. This makes Hamlet very sad because he really loved Ophelia. The other people don't really believe this but his mother does. She wanted Hamlet to marry Ophelia.

Now he lost two people he really loved.

* At the fight with laertes he was very selfassured, he thought he was going to win. He acted like a real sportman. During the fight he made jokes and everybody liked him.
During the fight the king did poison in the wine, it was the meaning to kill Hamlet with this wine. But Hamlet his mother drunk this wine and died.Another way to kill Hamlet was with Laertes his sword, there was put on a special oil, one scratch will killHamlet. After Laertes cut Hamlet in his arm, he was hit him­self with his own sword. After this happened Laertes told Hamlet that the king was the traitor, because Laertes thought in himself: "shit, what I'm know doing is wrong." After Hamlet heared this, he took his revenge. Just before he passes away he asked Horatius to tell the people about his life and to clean his name. He doesn't wan't to die with a bad name.

4 Hamlet's doubts

1. (Act 1, scene 5)
The ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for his father's death. Hamlet doesn't know what to think, at first he has his doubts about the ghost, maybe it's from hell, but he takes the risk of believing the ghost. He is also very shocked about what he just heared and though he believes the ghost he has to think things through. He couldn't just run downstairs and kill his uncle (the king). Everybody would think he is nuts. That's why he makes a plan to find out if the ghost is telling the truth.

2. (Act 3, scene 2)
When the play is shown Hamlet wants to scare the king and let him know that somebody knows what the king did to his father the, former king.

3. (Act 3, scene 3)
Claudius (Hamlet's uncle, the king) is praying when Hamlet walks in sword drawn. But Hamlet doesn't kill him because if Claudius is knelt in prayer he would go the heaven. This is not what Hamlet wants. He wants sweet revenge, Claudius must go to hell instead of heaven so Hamlet waits again.

4. (Act 4, scene 3)
In this scene there isn't a real opportunity to kill Claudius because there are a lot of people with him. Also Hamlet would look like a crazy murderer if he first kills Polonius and then also the king, maybe the guards would throw him in prison.

5. (Act 5, scene 2)
When Hamlet returns from England he is the blame of the death of Ophelia and Polonius. He would cause much more trouble if he kills the king also. His mother would also be hurt and I don't think anybody would believe him if he sayd Claudius killed his father.

5a The women in Hamlet play a very important part. Describe the relation between Hamlet and his mother.

Hamlet appreciates his mother very much but when she marries the murderer of his father just two months after his father died he doesn't understand his mother. He thinks his mother has got no feelings and he's very angry at his mother. He also thinks she is very weak, because she is married to the murderer of his father and she's not regretful, but she's happy. So, when Hamlet is mourning because of the death of his father, all his mother is doing is having fun and marry with another guy. Hamlet doesn't understand his mother at this moment, and his mother doesn't get why Hamlet is mourning so much. Later in the film his mother wants him to marry Ophelia but her father doesn't want that. Her father thinks Hamlet's crazy and he's just using her. Hamlet his mother really loved her son but not when he's angry at her. Hamlet thinks that his mother still loves his father in her heart, but that she's pushing away the pain, by just trying to forget him.

5b How does the relation with his mother influence his relation with Ophelia?

He wanted to revenge Claudius because he murdered his father and married his mother. He had not enough time for Ophelia at that moment, so the relation came to an end. He had to take revenge. Claudius had killed his father because of his mother (he loved her and wanted her). In that way his motherhad a big influence on the relation with Opelia, the revenge was more important than his relation with Ophelia.

6a Try to say in your own words in four or five sentences what Hamlet's problem is according to you.

He says that the fear of what comes after death makes us cowards to end out life that's full of suffering and calamity, Is it better to accept life or to fight against the troubles of life? This is what Hamlet keeps thinking about.

6b Which of the three translations appeals to you most and why?

The best translation on "To be or not to be" is in my eyes the one from Bert Voeten (1969) because in that the sufferings from life are told in the best way. It was very hard to choose one of the three but this one gives me the same feeling as the original –English- one.

7 Personages

Claudius: This man seems to be an honnest man, but is a sneeky devil. He sneeks up to his brother and kills him, just to become king and get married to Gertrude. He's a deceiver, but doesn't seem to car at all. On the other hand he's very sweet and caring towards his new wife; Gertrude. His plan seemes to get together, but in the end the seed turns against him and , after accidently killing his wife, he gets killed.

The Ghost: is the spirit of Hamlets father. He tells his son Hamlet what really happened (that he was killed by his brother) and that's his right. He tells Hamlet to kill Claudius to get revenge. Of course Hamlet is going to do so, but by ordering Hamlet to do so, the ghost inderectly makes sure the death of Hamlet. Because, if Hamlet wouldn't have known this, he would have still lived.

Polonius: He's the one that tells Claudius and Gertruda of Hamlet's madness. By telling this he almost kills Hamlet inderectly; Claudius doesn't want a mad almost-king walking around and making lots of trouble, so he sends him to England to get him killed. Fortunately Hamlet's smart enough and makes sure this doesn't happen.
He doesn't want Ophelia to marry Hamlet, he's a real intrieger. He even follows Hamlet into Gertrude's room and gets onforunately killed.

Gertrude: She marries only two months after the death with Claudius and gets in a real love affair. This is rather odd and disrespectful. Fortunately she's still on Hamlet's side, when he tells her what's going on. In the end she a good woman after all.

Ophelia: Because of the problems Hamlet's dealing with, she doesn't get much attention of Hamlet. She doesn't know how to act and gets a little bit mad. After Hamlet has killed her father, she gets totally mad and accendentily on purpose drowns. Hamlet mourned a lot about her death, because he did love her.

Laertes: When he gets home and heres his father and Ophelia are killed by Hamlet he gets very mad. On this moment Claudius gets him so mad, that he's willing to kill Hamlet. Laertes and Claudius made a plan, that Laertes will kill Hamlet during a fight with a poisened knife. During the fight he realises he's wrong, so he isn't absolutely bad.

8 Revenge play

The following is a list of genres or types of storie in which Hamlet could be categorized:

Tragedy, because a lot of people die, people like Polonius and Ophelia who are actually innocent, but die. Also it's a tragedy because Hamlet kills the father of the girl he loves, Ophelia. She is a real nice girl but gets crazy when her father dies and Hamlet is acting so weird towards her. The most tragic part is the end because many charecters see one of there loved one's die. Example movie: Legend of the fall.

Mystery, because there's a mysterious ghost in the film. Also the To be or not to be soliloguy is mysteious. Example: ???

Love story, the love that will never happen between Hamlet and Ophelia.
Example movie: French Kiss.

Action and adventure, of course at the end the sword fight and the murder of Polonius. A adventure that is not shown but really is, is Hamlet's trip to England.
Example movie: Mad Max.

Soap opera, the intrigue between Hamlet and Ophelia and also the quick re-mary of Hamlet's mother with his uncle. And the things they do to each other not always on purpose: the murder by Hamlet on Ophelia's father so Ophelia becomes crazy.
Example soap: GTST.

9 What's the theme of the film?

The theme of the film is revenge. The ghost of Hamlet's father gives Hamlet the order to murder Claudius, the new king, who's married to his mother and has killed him.
The brother of Ophelia, wants to take revenge on Hamlet because he killed his father and he was also the reason for the death of Ophelia. In the beginning Laertes wanted to kill the king but when the king told Laertes about Hamlet, he wanted to take revenge on Hamlet.

10 Which of the actors known by you would you like to see as Hamlet and why? In what respects would the film be different?

I'd like to see Robin Williams as Hamlet. Robin Williams is a well known actor and has a lot of experience, so I think he could do the job. Another reason why I think Robin Williams is a suitable actor is because Robin Williams has played lots of different characters, I'm absolutely sure he's able to play the part of Hamlet. But I doubt if he'd be as good as Mel Gibson. I think Mel Gibson is the a very good choise by the director.
Maybe Leonardo diCaprio could play Hamlet. He excelled in Titanic and he had played in another Shakespeare story (Romeo & Juliet) which he also did very well. Leo just isn't very experienced and you need to be a very good, experienced actor to play the part of Hamlet.
By chosing another actor a lot of aspects of a film change, that's what makes the choise so important and difficult. Which aspects will change I wouldn't know, you can't predict those things.

11 a Describe the differences between what you expected and what you actually saw.
We all expected a film like this, we all had a few different things in our head. Simon thought there would be more violence in it, Thomas thought it would be just like the film seemed to be later,

11 b What are, according to you, the positive and negative apects of this.

We agreed with each other that the differences between our expatations and the real film had no negative aspects, just positives. We all found the film wonderful and we enjoyed it a lot. We might expacted something else but that just made it more interesting to watch the film.

11 c Have your ideas changed?

My ideas about the film changed a bit, i found it a better film than I expected, because their was so much emotion and sometimes it was very exciting and funny. The writers of the film have succeeded very good.

11 d Have you ever seen a performance of Hamlet?

We all haven't seen another performance of Hamlet before. Only Harm had seen the film once before.

12 b What are the most important elements of a Shakespearean tragedy? Explain how each of them can be applied to Hamlet.

The most important elements of a Shakespearean tragedy are:
1) Important people
2) The force
3) Madness
4) Soliloquy
5) Death

In 'Hamlet' it goes about a prince, prince Hamlet whose father is the king of Denmark. So that explains the important people. The force, which is very important for the play, here, his murdered father returns as a ghost to Hamlet to tell him that he was murdered by his brother, the man who sits now on the throne next to his formal wife. That's why he makes plans to revenge his father, this is the main point where the play is about.
Madness comes to Ophelia, the woman that Hamlet loved but it didn't work out. Later she dies and this and Hamlet is very said, he loved her!
Hamlet is a very clever man. He talks a lot to himself, of course the most famous part is 'to be or not to be', but there are some scenes more when he talks a while to himself. This has to do with the importance of rhetoric.
The main character dies of course, that's part of a tragedy. Hamlet dies because of a plot against him. His uncle wants him dead because he knows that Hamlet knows he killed the king of Denmark. The brother of Ophelia who thinks Hamlet is to blame for his sister's dead is going to fight him. But he greased his sword with poison and so Hamlet dies. But he dies after his mother and uncle who drunk of the poison the uncle prepared.

Works on the sonnets

Sonnet 75 – Amoretti (published 1595) by Edmund Spenser (1552 – 1599)

1. The second quatrain is about the immortalizing. His woman thinks he shouldn't do that. Because it i'll not work anyway. So by doing it, you wipe away yourself.
The word 'this' in line seven refers to the washing away of the name he wrote on the beach. I think so because the word after 'this' is 'decay' which means in dutch 'vervallen, achteruit gaan' and the thing that decays is the name he wrote on the beach so.....

2. Always, when people talk about 'baser things' , they mean the more important things in life. Such as love and health.

3. The conclusion is the following: Even after death our Love shall live. Which isn't very logical, I suppose that after death everything end. So that's weird.

4. Line 5 to 10 is in a dialogue. The effect of this is that is seems as if they (Edmund and his wife) talk about it. And that he comes to the right conclusion with the help of his wife.

Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

1. The beloved person is lovelier and more temperate than the summer. The summer will lose his beauty but the person never will. He describes the summer how lovely she is but the person is lovelier.

2. In line 4 Shakespeare says that the summer sometimes lose her beauty already in May. And in line 9 he says that the summer of the person eternal is, so that the beauty of the person never goes.

3. It says that the person till eternity in his mind is, she will never go.

4. Line 13 is a bit dramatically; so long as men live and line 14 gives powerful the conclusion. So the last two lines give a powerful apotheosis of the lines above.
The lines strengthen all what is said above. There Shakespeare gives a lovely description of the person and than in the last lines it becomes powerful and it gives actually a conclusion.

Evaluation (question 12 a and 13)

We think it wasn't so hard to do. Although it is difficult to write everything in English sometimes. But the more time you spend on it the easier it gets.
The things we liked about this project were:
Watching the movie, Hamlet. We find it a good movie and it was nice to watch it.
Also finding out what kind of man Shakespeare was is very interesting. I mean, you have heard so much about him and at the same time you know so little that it was great to find out about him. Over all we liked working on this project very much. For the first time almost everything was arranged in time, only Niels had some problems with a propor planning, but except that we didn't had to do everything in the end, that made it work much more relaxed.
We believe that this project was organised very well.
Our group worked very well. Although we were friends of each other, we were able to work on a proper way and we didn't spend all our time on social contacts, this happens very quikly so I think it's great it worked out this way.
We think the result is wonderfull. It looks nice and proper and we're hoping on a grade which fits the result.... Some small things we would have done differently. But on the whole it worked out to be great.

Log-Book

We think it wasn't so hard to do. Although it is difficult to write everything in English sometimes. But the more time you spend on it the easier it gets.
The things we liked about this project were:
Watching the movie, Hamlet. We find it a good movie and it was nice to watch it.
Also finding out what kind of man Shakespeare was is very interesting. I mean, you have heard so much about him and at the same time you know so little that it was great to find out about him. Over all we liked working on this project very much. For the first time almost everything was arranged in time, only Niels had some problems with a propor planning, but except that we didn't had to do everything in the end, that made it work much more relaxed.
We believe that this project was organised very well.
Our group worked very well. Although we were friends of each other, we were able to work on a proper way and we didn't spend all our time on social contacts, this happens very quikly so I think it's great it worked out this way.
We think the result is wonderfull. It looks nice and proper and we're hoping on a grade which fits the result.... Some small things we would have done differently. But on the whole it worked out to be great.

Log-Book

On the first day we got to choose Thomas to secretary and Niels as his replaceman, Simon to chairman and Harm as his replaceman.

11 dec. At school
On this day we divided the tasks:
Harm had to make assignment 1and 12, the sonnet by William Shakespeare. Niels had to do assignment 4, 7, 8, 10 and 11a/b. Simon was assigned to assignment 13, the layout of the whole thing, the sonnet by Edmund Spenser and the Evaluation. Thomas had to do assignment 3, 5, 6, 9, 11c/d and he had to keep up the Log-book. We also made the deal that if we finished an assignment, we first showed it to the other members of the group, so everybody had seen it and there was a possibility to discuus the answers.

11 dec. At home
All of us made assigment 2.

14 dec. At school
Today we searched some internet sites on Shakespeare. When we found a few, we emailed the URL's to Simon.

15 dec. At school
Niels and Thomas made assignment 4. Harm read some info on shakespeare and the Renaissance he found at home. Simon read the sonnet by Edmund Spencer. Harm and Simon looked at assignment 4 and we discussed about it.

Christmas-Vacation. At home
In this vacation we all made most of our work. Simon emailed Harm an Niels some info on Shakespeare he found on the world wide web and on the microsoft Encarta '98 Enceclopedy.

4 jan. At school
We discussed some assignments and we looked at some info given to us by Miss Obbens.

5 jan. At home
Harm worked on the sonnet of W. Shakespeare, Simon on the sonnet by Spencer. Niels worked on his last assignment, Thomas had everything done.

6 jan. At school in a blank hour
We all discussed the last assignments and the two sonnets.

9 jan At home
Niels and Harm emailed everything they made to Simon and Thomas had already given a disk with his assignments. Simon put the whole work together and made the assignments Niels didn't had the time for to finish. Simon made the layout look good.

Literature-list

Most of our information we have got from the internet. So here wil follow the URL's:

http://daphne.palomar.edu/shakespeare/
http://www.nrc.nl/W2/Lab/Profiel/Shakespeare/inhoud.html
http://www.telegraaf.nl/krant/archief/19990102/teksten/bui.shakespeare.html
http://shakespeare.let.uu.nl/
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/index.html
http://tnj.phys.tue.nl/users/jos/cits/poem/es.html
http://tnj.phys.tue.nl/users/jos/cits/poem/es-info.html
http://us.imdb.com/Title?Hamlet+(1990/I)

From the Microsoft Encarta '98 encyclopedie we've got information on the Rennaisannce, Shakespeare and Hamlet.