Blog Task - “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare

        I have studied “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare in my first semester of Post Graduation. Dr. Dilip Barad has given an online task to perform after movie screening of the film “Hamlet”

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My response to the blog task:

1) Movie is quite faithful to the play, because it has followed the text well, but it has also "a creative touch"  by the director, and in scenes like the conversation between ghost and Hamlet, Hamlet's rude behavior  towards Ophelia, we can notice it is very well directed and performed, it can express emotions as well as by imagination while reading.

2) At some point it has changed my perception about the play. While reading we can imagine the different kind of situations and scenes of the play, but after watching the movie we come to know about how the dialogues were delivered, and after observing  the expressions, we conclude the interpretation more effectively.  It has given a perfect support to the play to get proper meaning.

3) Yes,this is tragic play, though I felt 'aesthetic delight' while i have watched some comic scenes of Hamlet and when there is a scene of Ophelia and Hamlet when they were happy, we can also feel delight when Hamlet recalls his memories with his father. Aesthetic delight can be found in tragic scene also, when Hamlet saw the ghost of his father and had a talk with him.

4) Yes, I felt 'catharsis' in such scenes like:  when Hamlet come to know about his father's murder by  his uncle and mother, when Hamlet is frustrated and he behaves cruelly with Ophelia, In the scene in which Ophelia had gone mad and his brother came, when Hamlet dies.

5) Yes it is very much useful to get the play properly and in right way. At one point it can power up our imagination to get the setting, situations and the mind set of character by his expression.  Audio visuals can effect more than 'Only reading', as we can remember easily what we have seen than what we have read.

6) There are many scenes in the play which are very beautifully directed, but the scene in which Hamlet follows the ghost and the whole conversation is beautifully directed, there is various emotions mingled together, there is delight, terror, revenge, shock and the feeling of hatred in the eyes of Hamlet, and the expression of the ghost and his effective voice, his tone is so effective.

7) A film has beautifully directed, but if i was the director, I would like to change the technique; I would make Hamlet to tell the story with the technique of recalling memories before death, because the movie or play can be more effectively understood by the point of views of Hamlet.

8) In first scene statue suggests the ghost is coming to take revenge, but in last scene it suggests the result of the revenge. So the downfall of empire and king Hamlet is because of the feeling of revenge, as it is said; Eye for an eye make the world blind. Same has happened in the play.

9) We can observe such approaches as the psychological approach and Formalist approach. We can notice in such scenes of play while Hamlet is with his mother and when he is going to take such decision towards his revenge with Claudius, many times he finds his self helpless. In formalist approach, it is all about trapping each other; first victim is king Hamlet, Second is Claudius and third is Hamlet.

10) In the play, Formalist approach appeals me more than any other approach. There is a disturbed world from the first scene, and a vast difference between “seeming” and  “being “ in all the major characters like Claudius, Gertrude, and Hamlet. All are pretending as they are right and good, but all has some kind of Devilish intention on their own perception. There is also a vast difference between “seeing” and “knowing”, Ophelia in his dialogue said: Lord, we know what we are, but we know not what we may be”. There is a question of “know-ability” of characters in play, Gertrude is a mother of Hamlet and still she is not aware with the condition of Hamlet. There are different approaches in different psychological state of mind.