Paper Topic:

Comparison of William Shakespeares Hamlet to Kenneth Branaughs movie version of Hamlet.

Kenneth Branagh 's Hamlet was slightly different from that of the original play . Most of Shakespeare lines in the play were used by Branagh . However , the sequence , in which these lines were said , was altered by Branagh to suit the flow of the movie genre . These were most apparent in the scenes that involved Claudius the King . In the first act , when King Claudius and Queen Gertrude enter the Hall after they were wed , Claudius was supposed to address Hamlet first before he speaks to the Lord Attendants and before he gives leave

to Laertes to go to France . In Branagh 's version , the King addresses the Lord Attendants first and sends them off to Norway , after which he addresses Laertes Finally and quite dramatically , the King addresses Hamlet who slowly enters the Hall from the sidelines giving the camera enough time to just focus on Hamlet alone . This method added more emphasis on Hamlet 's hesitancy to join the wedding celebration . Although this was effective in the movie , this will not work as well if it was done on stage since the action can be fully seen unlike in the movie where the camera can focus on an actor at a time

Branagh also added some lines that he created as a set up to a particular scene , making the viewer anticipate the events that will occur after . This he did while Hamlet was running after the ghost in the forest . The added lines which were made to seem as thoughts running through his head , was parallel to him running after the ghost and also served as a connector between the scene prior to the following making the next utterance of Whither wilt thou lead me ? Speak ! I 'll go no further (Shakespeare Scene 5 ) more meaningful and more accentuated

These added lines and the more accentuated line of Hamlet condition the mind of the viewer as to what will occur next which is the appearance and the monologue of the ghost which will eventually lead to the creation of Hamlet 's revenge . However , all this put together makes Hamlet 's madness more comprehensible by the viewer

Branagh also added lines to Hamlet in the scene prior to Claudius monologue . Hamlet 's short speech , which is not in Shakespeare 's original play , again prepares the viewer 's mind to Claudius ' remorse making Hamlet 's play appear more successful as far as Hamlet 's purpose for the play is concerned

Finally , Branagh 's interpretation of Hamlet 's and Ophelia 's madness are more modern day which fits his presentation of the play which he dated somewhere in the 19th century as compared to Shakespeare 's initial late 16th to 17th century setting . There is no doubt that Shakespeare intended to make Hamlet look schizophrenic . His hallucinations ' and detachment to reality are characteristic of schizophrenia . However most portrayals , and definitely the way Shakespeare intended it to be is the paranoid kind of schizophrenia where behavior and thought processes are dysfunctional and...

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