Hamlet Character Choice Essay

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UA’s production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, was a successful retelling of a well-known classic. There were fascinating and appropriate choices made in regards to setting, stage appearance, play reorganization, and overall mood. But perhaps the most interesting choices, were those made according to character. Some of the character choices enhanced the play well beyond what it could produce in print, while others diminished some of the play’s best moments and most important themes.
When commenting on character choice, the most appropriate character to begin with is the play’s namesake—Hamlet. When thinking about a character within a play, one very important thing to note is the character’s first line. In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet’s first line …show more content…

There is an undeniable echo of Hamlet’s inner toil in how those artists externalized the inner angst of their time and generation so eloquently.” The director’s association between Hamlet and beat generation music is an appropriate one. However, the application of this music could have been handled in a more nuanced way. The words in Hamlet’s soliloquies are powerful and important to the major themes in the play. Overlaying music over every soliloquy of Hamlet’s felt forced and did not enhance the moments, but rather blanketed them, reducing their …show more content…

In UA’s production Gertrude sees the ghost in her chamber when Hamlet is accusing her, but denies that she has. She also witnesses Ophelia’s death. Both of these actions can be inferred while reading the play, but seeing them blatantly acted out further develops Gertrude’s character. Gertrude and King Claudius are similar in that they do not want to upset the status quo and they do not want to accept their sins. This comparison is cemented by Gertrude’s actions in the play. She does not want to accept the sin that she had a hand in killing her previous king and husband, so she denies that she has seen him in her chamber. Then, when she witnesses Ophelia drowning, she does not do anything to stop it because Ophelia’s madness was only creating problems in the court and in her own personal life. Seeing Gertrude act in this way, rather than simply not seeing the ghost king or Ophelia’s death, makes her more complicit in the play’s

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