What Are Michael Almereyda's Emotions In Hamlet

Hamlet’s Fear and Fury

What does it take to push a person over the edge? And what is the natural human response to that pain? These are questions that are brought up countless times in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. The play surrounds the life of Hamlet, a young prince who is dealing with his father’s death and attempting to avenge his murder. This play is produced into two films by directors, Kenneth Branagh and Michael Almereyda. One of the key differences between the films is the way the directors interpret how Hamlet deals with his anger. In one specific scene, Ophelia breaks up with Hamlet and then allows her father to listen in to their conversation. The directors show their different interpretations of Hamlet by how they have him react to those two separate betrayals. In Branagh’s film, he immediately gets angry at Ophelia and uses his anger as a tool to try and get Ophelia to try to understand …show more content…
The moment where the first shift occurred in this interpretation has the opposite effect on Hamlet. When Ophelia returns the letters his voice doesn’t display anger, but rather, stays calm and collected. The director removes his entire speech about her being unfaithful to him and goes straight from “I did love you once,”(3.1.125) to “I loved you not.”(3.1.129) Despite his denial, this seems to indicate that Hamlet still thinks that he can salvage the relationship. He then walks over to her, intimately rubs her back, sits down next to her, and begins his “Get thee to a Nunnery” (3.1.131) speech. The intimacy of his body language as he leans in and the softness of his voice, make it seem like the break up never even happened. He explains to Ophelia his flaws kindly, as if he is still having a conversation with her and trying to get her to understand. He shows no anger like he did in the Branagh version because he still believes he has complete control over the