I began Hamlet by listening to the Folger audio dramatization and it was a very good introduction. I understood almost all of it and prior to this, I wouldn't have said that Shakespeare is very clear to me. It's the line breaks of the iambic pentameter more than the language that gets me. Much of it is Yoda speak which I can decipher if I could get over the pause in my head when the line breaks.
I listened to the Great Courses next which I also enjoyed more than I'd imagined. I was introduced to them on DVD back in the ye olde days of high school and they were a snooze fest back then. The lectures break down a few themes and theories of each play and I felt engaged by all of it.
The movie was best of all, of course. It felt really blast of the past, 90s historical action movie.
The strongest character for me was Gertrude even though I barely noticed her in the text. She doesn't have many lines so it's up to the actor to fill in the blanks and she did really well, in that I really disliked her. She's one of those women who uses flirtation as her sole power including on her son and then is sTuNnEd when there are repercussions. Let's be honest, if Ophelia hadn't been driven mad by her father's death, Gertrude would have taken her there anyway, by virtue of MIL trauma. If a rishta with Hamlet's mom ever came along, I'd have rejected him just because the mom's more toxic than whatever that pearl thingie the king put in her drink was. If she was alive today, Madison Humphrey would make a parody of her.
By the way, I watched this on a small screen with the lights on, because I wasn't sure how graphic it was going to be or if there were going to be any jump scares. It was alright.
Here are Thing 1 and Thing 2. I found them amusing for the reason that they really were only just this side of Dumb and Dumber and are constantly aghast by the consequences of their choices. To their fatal end, unfortunately.
Horatio did really well emoting wholesome, good guy without saying a word. I'm not even sure he said anything after the first scene with the ghost.
Ugh, Ophelia. I did want to pathologize her, because it just doesn't make SENSE. One does not turn barking mad overnight! I did recognize it as a contemporary obsession with pathologizing psychology and I think I have something to think about around this impulse. But Missy and I had some good conversations around lead in wine, nervous breakdowns, mental fragility, and just pure plot device. For that time, perhaps such a quick descent into insanity was not as farfetched as modern science as well as modern understanding of what insanity is, makes it to be today. I am aware there is more madness in Shakespeare ahead, but I think I understand its place a lot better now.
Hamlet...good. No better, no worse than I'd hoped him to be. He made these faces that made me laugh but probably weren't supposed to. He also made me laugh when he wanted me to. The movie demonstrated to me what I'd missed in the audio: the soliloquies are a little like what we call info-dumping in books now. They're really good pieces of prose though and I enjoyed them more in the audio as a result. I was taken aback to realize that the whole "To be or not to be" speech is a contemplation of suicide.
A question Missy answered for me was why iambic pentameter? I finally got around to that question because I hadn't understood until now that Shakespeare was meant on some level for the masses. If it was for very learned people as it felt due to how much it is studied now, I would assume they like the linguistic challenge. But the average person would not care about that. So it turns out, it was a fad back then. The best example Missy gave was how in the early 2000s, songs with a female pop singer and a male rapper were popular. Also, all the best playwrights did it and so Shakespeare did too.
It was good entertainment. I can see how it would have been the best entertainment before we had special effects, sewing machines, and access to all media at our fingertips. I think at the very least I shall continue to listen to the audio, the Great Lectures where available and watch the movie, with accessories thrown in. Thug lectures have been brought to my attention.
We go to pre-Christian Britain next where I hear someone's eyes are to be plucked. *shudders*
(Ha! Just read Missy's Hamlet post and we ARE looking forward to King Lear, aren't we?)
Score: 4
Next: King Lear
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