Ophelia's Madness In The Movie Hamlet

Madness derives from great grief. Gibson and Zefferelli were effective in showing that Hamlet and Ophelia were mad. However, the movie did not show that most of the time in madness they spoke the truth as it did in the book. Throughout the entire movie, Hamlet was wearing black almost the entire time. He was wearing black due to his mourning of his father, even though the death had happened two months beforehand and everyone else had moved on. King Claudius said that the mourning Hamlet prolonged was just out of “impious stubbornness” (Act 1. Sc 2. Ln 98.) because it had lasted so long. Hamlet’s main conflict was due to his father’s death and trying to resolve his grief.
In the movie, Hamlet ran after the ghost instead of staying in the safety of his friend’s presence. He did not know if the ghost was his father, so this was a very risky move on his part. In the book, he followed the ghost after the ghost beckoned, but there are no stage directions that imply Hamlet chasing after the Ghost. (Act 1. Sc 5. Ln 97) The movie added an aspect of how Hamlet might have been mad before finding out that Claudius was the one that killed his father. After the conversation with the Ghost, Hamlet ran around striking rocks with his
This was not written into the play. It could have been interpreted as aggressive in the book, but the stage directions made no implication of him actually pushing her around as the movie portrayed. Hamlet had loved his mom a lot, and to be physically aggressive showed that Hamlet was not in a great state of mind. He had promised to only be intimidating by his voice, not physically. The movie included the detail that Gertrude did could not see the Ghost when he entered Gertrude’s chambers. Gertrude did not hear or see the Ghost (Act 3. Sc 4. Ln 153) while Hamlet spoke to him. This detail causes the audience to wonder if Hamlet ever did see the Ghost or if all of this was made