Hamlet Play vs. Hamlet, Prince

¶ … Hamlet play vs. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark DVD, 1980

Hamlet: A comparison/contrast between the written text and the 1980 BBC version of the play starring Derek Jacobi

Hamlet was written to be performed, and every time a play is performed there is a certain amount of 'interpretation' on the part of the director and actors that changes the viewer's reception of the text, even if no words are altered or omitted. For example, in the case of the 1980 version of Hamlet starring Derek Jacobi, when the protagonist speaks his famous "To be or not to be speech," the speech on the page seems like a philosophical tract, but in Jacobi's rendition the famous speech seems like the words of a person who is having a personal crisis, as well as objectively talking about the nature of existence. Hamlet, despite after seeing what he believes is the ghost of his father, seems sane and rational and clear-sighted, yet troubled.

All of the other major soliloquies of Hamlet arise because he has seen someone else do something that angers or inspires him, like Claudius, the player-king, or Fortinbras. In the written text, "To be or not to be" seems to come out of nowhere, but the BBC version makes his words seem motivated by genuine, intelligent reflection and doubt about whether there is an afterlife and whether his father's ghost is a real visitation from "the undiscovered country" from which no "traveler returns."

Jacobi's Hamlet is an intelligent and critical individual, who is angry at injustice, but not mad in the sense of being insane. Even Hamlet's ravings when observed by Ophelia are calculated and directed at the men who he knows are observing him. Hamlet is tormented by the revelation that the ghost has given to him. His gestures, such as staring at his hands with horror when he realizes what he has done to Ophelia, imply that even when he is out of control, he understands what he has done and said is cruel. Then he embraces Ophelia and weeps, indicating he is sad because he knows that it is unlikely that he will ever have a normal relationship, given his enforced role as an avenger.

Of course, there are moments in the text where Hamlet does seem completely out of control, as in the case Hamlet's accidental homicide of Polonius, but Jacobi's performance underlines the wisdom and intelligence of Hamlet's character. When Jacobi's Hamlet does lash out, he reproaches himself for it, in body language as well as in his use of the text. Jacobi is never irrational. Even when at emotional extremes, he does not descend into a dissociative state. Hamlet still seems to have the most secure grip on reality of all the major characters: he sees the darkness of Denmark and the fact that he is likely doomed, and in this sense he is even more clear-eyed than his friend the scholarly Horatio.