Hamlet And Ophelia
Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It recounts how Prince
Hamlet of Denmark goes about taking revenge for his father by killing his
murderer, Claudius. In act 3, scene 1 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fail to
report the reason for Hamlets ‘madnessˇ, so Ophelia, Hamletˇs lover, is
instructed by Claudius to see if his ‘madnessˇ is caused by her. I chose to
perform this scene because it shows key elements of Hamlets character,
his contemplative yet cynical side, shown fully in his famous “to be, or not
to be” soliloquy and Hamletˇs rash and impulsive side, showing his anger
at Ophelia as well as his unpredictability. The area that I focused on was
from the start of his soliloquy to where he leaves Ophelia before her “oh
what a noble mind” speech.
I started the scene in silence, keeping a neutral body posture, and slowly
began with “to be, or not to be”, instead of making it a huge dramatic
statement, I chose to make it more hesitant, with a lengthened pause at
the comma, this was done to make it look like it was a statement that had
just come to Hamlet. Hamlet is a scholar and a philosopher and I was
trying to portray this by making it seem as if he had discovered this notion
of the ‘point of existenceˇ, a key recurring theme throughout the whole
of the play. Hamlet is not talking about a wish to commit suicide, in fact
he does not use the words “I” or “me” throughout the whole speech,
which meant that the speech was more rhetorical than personal. I tried
to portray this by conducting the speech as if it were two balanced sides
of an argument. In an underlying tone that would be used to say the phrases
like oM 7We oMe WKMK for the line “whether tis nobler to suffer the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune” and oM 7We o7We/ WKMK, “or to take
arms against a sea of troubles”. I also had to show how Hamlet related to the
speech, showing how he contemplated the idea of ending all his troubles
through death, but without actually expressing the actual desire to kill
himself, so I put emphasis on lines like “to die, to sleep” and using
lengthened pauses to make is seem like he was in pensive state. This
‘argumentˇ then brings him to the issue with his issue of “being”, which was
that of not knowing what comes after death, which Hamlet concludes is
what all men fear, “thus conscience does make cowards of us all”. I said
this line with a defeatist tone, lowering my voice and adding a sigh to
show Hamlets philosophical and cynical attributes made him come to this
conclusion.
When Ophelia enters, Hamlet is initially glad to see her, although he is still
in his pensive mood, this was achieved by him smiling when facing her
and returning to a more sombre expression when turned away,
emphasised by the three “well”s which are in response to Ophelia
demanding how hamlet is. The first is higher pitched, and said with a smile
to show how hamlet is happy to be standing in front of his love, the
second is more to himself, said with a more questioning feel to it, and the last is
more for the audiences benefit who previously participated to his” to be, or not
to be speech”, said in a lowered voice almost through gritted teeth to show how
Hamlet is thinking about the conclusion to his soliloquy, and the uncertainty of
life after death.
Ophelia has been instructed by her father to return several tokens of Hamlets
love to him, this hurts Hamlet who thinks it odd and makes him start to question
her motives; concluding that Hamlet might think that she might have a sent by
someone else, at which point I look around stage looking for this ‘other manˇ to
show how Hamlet is cynical. At this point Hamlets anger comes out, which is where
I raise my voice to a near shout, throwing the tokens, in this case, books, to the
floor.
Hamlet then tells her how he really feels for her, saying, “I did love you once”
which is where I lock with the actress playing Ophelia to show how Hamlet is in
fact saying his true feeling, to which she replies “indeed my lord, you made me
believe so”, this blunt statement just angers Hamletˇs character even more, which
makes him want to hurt her feelings, so he retorts with “I loved you not” which
is in fact a lie, was portrayed by Hamlet looking in the opposite direction to
Ophelia, so I could give Hamlet a pained expression that expressed his true
feelings.
Hamlet then has his “get thee to a nunnery” speech, which is where
Hamlet again addresses the wider public with his notions; a key speech
which is the dramatic climax of the scene, here I had to show Hamlet
releasing all his anger and frustration by essentially saying that Ophelia
should lock herself away never to be a temptation for any other man ever
again. Being quite a vicious message, I chose to put emphasis, on the key
words and phrases such as “get thee to a nunnery” and “breeder of
sinners”, to show it was like Hamlet was actually trying to hurt her with
each metaphorical “blow”. At the end of his speech Hamlet asks the
question “where is your father”, I interpreted this as Hamlet giving
Ophelia one last chance, to show his compassionate and loving side. This
was done by getting closer to the actress playing Ophelia and instead of
demanding as a loud command which is what would have been
expected, I whispered it, to show how Hamlet was testing her, as he knew
that there was someone else, observing them. And when Ophelia fails his
test, I expressed disappointment instead of anger, again to show how
really he would have wished for her to be truthful to him, so that he could
continue to love her as he always had. Now Hamlet is resigned to not
being able to trust Ophelia, so he returns to his previous way of abusing
her. I again used this chance to show Hamlets hasher, angrier side.
Emphasising his more powerful images such as “chaste as ice” where I
elongated the sound of the sibilance.
Toward the end of the scene is where Hamlet says a line that indicates
that he is referring to the other person in the room; “all but one shall
live”. This shows how the aim of revenge is ever present in Hamlets head;
I showed this by focussing all my characters attention on a spot that had
previously been accidentally pointed out by Ophelia.
In conclusion, I portrayed Hamlet as an impulsive and unpredictable
character who did not always give the reaction expected by the
audience. The scene contained a speech that was perfect to show
Hamlets philosophical and cynical side, where key themes are introduced
into the play. I also showed Hamlets ability to love through his
relationship with Ophelia, where even though he knew she wasnˇt acting
truthfully, he still gave her a chance to prove herself to him. And finally, I
was able to show how Hamlet reacted in anger, which was the state that
he is in for the better part of the scene, portrayed through a number of
little venomous speeches directed at Ophelia.