Blog #15: Hamlet Act 3

Hamlet Act 3:To Be or Not To Be Analysis

In this soliloquy, there is many references to his father’s murder and his uncle’s guilt over the murder. When he discusses the “dread of something after death,” he is referring to his father’s ghost that spoke to him and is stuck in purgatory. He discusses guilt and how “conscience does make cowards of us all,” an image where he is specifically speaking about his uncle, even though he is unaware that Claudius is listening, and how he is coward for not admitting to the murder of King Hamlet. At the beginning of the speech he questions whether it is “nobler in the mind to suffer…or to take arms,” showing his belief in the hierarchy of being. He is unsure of how to act to keep his place as a noble; he wants to strike and kill Claudius, but isn’t sure if he should deal with the matter within himself, no matter how difficult it might be. The speech appeals to the audience with Ethos, describing how the “mortal coil, must give us pause,” justifying how it is morally and humanely right to be given space when dealt an issue. He uses pathos when talking of love, speaking, of course, about Ophelia, for whom he feels “pangs of despised love” when she begins to ignore him.In the speech, sleep is used as a metaphor for death, and dreams are a metaphor for the afterlife. His repetition of the phrase “to die, to sleep” argues that he is ready for death because he has done much grieving over his father. He describes how the “sleep” will “end the heartache and thousand natural shocks,” which is imagery describing the pain and struggle he has dealt with in the past two months.

Mis En Scene Analysis:

In Mel Gibson’s portrayal of Hamlet, he is giving his soliloquy as he is walking around in the catacombs. The scene is very dark, as they are underground, with very bright contrast coming from the light streaming down from the openings above. When Hamlet walks from the shadow into the light, it is a close up shot that is slightly lower, to show the pain in his eyes as he looks up towards the light, which could symbolize heaven as he is talking about death. His costume is dark, but does not exemplify any particular time period, like the Olivier and Hawke version do. He is shown with a full beard, which makes him appear more mature than the other versions.The scene is very monochromatic, showing various shades of brown.The use of setting itself allowed the viewers to better understand the metaphor between sleep in death, which is emphasized when he says the words “To die” and it cuts to a view of the skeletons.The only sounds in the scene are diegetic sounds, like the sound of Hamlet walking, or other slight background noises. When he is still, the background noise is almost completely silent, so the only thing the audience can hear is Hamlet’s speech.

The Mel Gibson version was the most effective portrayal of Hamlet and the emotion behind the soliloquy. It best emphasizes the comparison between sleep and death with the addition of the sarcophagus and the skeletons themselves. The room was silent, without too much to distract from the speech, while still having movement to keep the viewers engaged. Next, The Kenneth Branagh version was effective with the use of mirrors to emphasize that things are not as they appear. The Ethan Hawke version was effective because it emphasized the theme of action versus in action as he was walking down the action movie aisle of Blockbuster, which was a very good modern representation. However, the costuming wasn’t very effective because it did not make him appear as a noble, which is an important part when he discusses “whether ‘tis nobler the mind to suffer,” and the costume does not support his struggle to find his place in the hierarchy of being. Lastly, the Laurence Olivier version was not very effective because the loud suspenseful music was distracting to the speech itself, along with the awkward positioning of the character. The editing cuts often did not make sense, and there was zooming in to an extreme close up where it wasn’t necessary.