Hamlet Film Interpretation

Hamlet Film Evaluation
Look at me, woman!

Hamlet's reoccurring theme of male superiority is displayed clearly in Act 3 scene 4, the closet scene. In Kenneth Branaugh's version of Hamlet, the positioning of Gertrude verse Hamlet, eye contact, and tone gave the audience a clear sense that Hamlet was in control of the scene. It was ironic how the scene played out. Typically Gertrude, who is his mother, the queen, and a respectable women, would naturally have superiority over Hamlet. The way the scene was portrayed gave us a totally different view. At the time of the closet scene Hamlet is a hot topic. He is being questioned by everyone, as people throughout the palace try to pin the point of Hamlet's madness. Polonius and Claudius set up this time to specifically place Hamlet in an environment that it secure, his mother's room. Polonius and Claudius plan to have Gertrude set the scene and question Hamlet, hoping to get to the bottom of his insanity. As Hamlet approaches his mother and conversation begins, she is weakened by his words automatically. Positioning of characters in any film will give the viewer a certain perception. Whether the characters are close together, at an awkward distance apart, or, as in this scene, one above the other. Hamlet approached Gertrude's room as she sat on the the bed. When Hamlet walked in it seemed as if he knew what she was going to ask. “ Gertrude: Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended./ Hamlet: Mother, you have my father much offended./ Gertrude: Come come you answer me with an idle tongue./ Hamlet: Go, go you question with a wicked tongue” (III.IV.10-14). Gertrude was ready to set him in his place and scold him for the ruckus he had caused in the palace. Immediately, Hamlet threw the same statements back to his mother, insulting her. When I read and analyzed this scene I felt as if Hamlet had verbally pushed his mother down. He was not physically over her but verbally, she was set back by how he had immediately insulted her in his response to her questions. As Gertrude and Hamlet's conversation continues, it still seems to be a fight for the 'top' of the conversation. Hamlet says to his mother, “Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not/ budge/ You go not till I set you up a glass/ where you see the inmost part of you!”(III.IV.19-21). Hamlet gets up on his mother's bed and sits behind her. He gets out two photos, one of his father and one of Claudius. As he sits behind her he puts them extremely close to her face, and scolds her sternly of the embarrassment and idiot she has become from the marriage between her and his father's brother. Hamlet goes on and on scolding her, talking down to her, and really offending Gertrude. She can't even look at Hamlet, or bear listen to him. Gertrude is so weak that she is completely thrown off of her 'mission' to figure out Hamlet. After Hamlet has stabbed Polonius Gertrude sits on the chair, while Hamlet stands above her saying that the sin he just committed, of killing Polonius, is much less hurtful than the sins that she has committed in her marriage. This is a powerful point of their conversation, a bit of a turning point in Hamlet's mood, and voice. Hamlet has thrown his mother down onto the bed. He is physically on top of her now, holding her now and shaking her. Gertrude screams for Hamlet to stop, “O Hamlet, speak no more./ Thou turn'st my eyes into my very soul,/ And there I see such black and grained spots/ As will not leave their tinct” (III.IV.89-92). Hamlet's tone of voice is extremely high, he is physically in control of her, and she cannot bare look him in the eyes. Hamlet is now mentally out of control, he is on the bed yelling and screaming of the sins his mother has committed. He is so graphic with what he describes to her of Claudius and his mother, and she is astonished. Emotions are crazy as they go from yelling to kissing, and then the ghost appears. As Hamlet has nearly lost total control of his emotions, the ghost of his father enters. Hamlet and his mother sit up on the bed. As Hamlet stares into, what looks like blank space to Gertrude, he is memorized by his father. His father states that he is there to basically put Hamlet back on track for what he was sent to do originally. All of the elements used by the director to emphasize the difference between him and his mother are paused. As they both stare and wonder, Gertrude thinks she has caught Hamlet in a clear state of mindlessness, but she doesn't see what Hamlet sees. Tone changes here from completely screaming and action, to staring and just listening. As Hamlet's father brings him back to where he needs to be, he calms down and says to his mother, “...Bring me to the test,/ And I, the matter will reword, which madness/ would gambol from...” (III.IV. 142-145). Hamlet tells his mother, put me to the test I'll tell you again what I have said, a lunatic could not do that. The conversation is civil at this point but still speaking of the same things. Gertrude is so stricken by Hamlet's long speeches of all she has done, that she just is done and wants him to stop talking of the subject. The tone until the en of the scene doesn't accelerate to the height that it did before, but more of a regular conversation. As you can think of in you're own life, being yelled at or punished by your parents, is not just a regular conversation. I know I had no intention to look into my parents' eyes as I was being scolded. I was either ashamed or did not want to be told of what I had done bad. Gertrude exemplifies this exactly. But, for her it is her son yelling at her and setting her in her place. During the opening of the scene Gertrude is set to be stern with him and stares him into the eyes, showing him her position and that she was serious about what she was going to talk to him about. While Hamlet showed his mother the photos of his father and of Claudius she couldn't look directly at them. She either looked down or away, never directly at them. I especially see that Gertrude really hasn't acknowledged the truth of what she had done, and that it was wrong. At first Gertrude didn't take seriously what Hamlet was saying, he was just crazy and rambling over his sadness of the loss of his father. But, as he continued, it was clear to her that what she had done was wrong. During Hamlet's rant about all of the nasty things his mother had committed with his uncle, he was on top of her, face to face. Gertrude couldn't bare to keep still, let alone look at her. All she could do was scream for him to stop and kept shaking her head avoiding any sort of satisfaction to Hamlet that was was listening. She could not bare to hear what he was saying. Women were the looking glass, and tool of the male characters in Hamlet. Gertrude was used to gain further knowledge of her son. Unfortunately, the women's role was very weak and vulnerable, Gertrude was a perfect example. She went in to the scene as a strong mother with the intent of having a serious conversation with her son. As the scene came to an end the roles completely switched. Gertrude could not follow through with the task given, proving that she couldn't handle herself in the tough situation Hamlet brought upon her. The scene's positioning, tone, and forcefulness, showed us how easily women were set below and put men automatically on a pedestal. “Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size.” Virginia Woolf.