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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love hamlet it’s so good I need to rewatch the Kenneth Branagh movie
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was good! I guess? Cool story, great characters, I just wish that I had understood it better lol
Na het meesterwerk Macbeth gelezen te hebben en helemaal onder de indruk te zijn geraakt, besloot ik meteen Hamlet te kopen. Helaas was het een enorme teleurstelling. Waar Macbeth me volledig wist mee te slepen met zijn spanning, intriges en sterke personages, voelde Hamlet traag, langdradig en soms zelfs onnodig ingewikkeld.
Het enige wat het stuk voor mij nog een beetje wist te redden, is de iconische "To be or not to be"-monoloog. Dat moment blijft prachtig en terecht beroemd. Maar verder had ik moeite om echt in het verhaal te komen en vond ik de personages weinig boeiend. Voor mij mist het de magie die Shakespeare’s andere werken wel hebben.
Het was een grote tegenvaller, zeker omdat ik met zulke hoge verwachtingen begon. Ik had gehoopt op een tweede Shakespeare-ervaring die net zo indrukwekkend zou zijn als Macbeth, maar dat bleek helaas niet het geval. Hamlet mag van mij stof verzamelen op de plank, want een herlezing zit er niet in.
Het enige wat het stuk voor mij nog een beetje wist te redden, is de iconische "To be or not to be"-monoloog. Dat moment blijft prachtig en terecht beroemd. Maar verder had ik moeite om echt in het verhaal te komen en vond ik de personages weinig boeiend. Voor mij mist het de magie die Shakespeare’s andere werken wel hebben.
Het was een grote tegenvaller, zeker omdat ik met zulke hoge verwachtingen begon. Ik had gehoopt op een tweede Shakespeare-ervaring die net zo indrukwekkend zou zijn als Macbeth, maar dat bleek helaas niet het geval. Hamlet mag van mij stof verzamelen op de plank, want een herlezing zit er niet in.
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel unworthy of being negative about a Shakespeare play. Surely I just don't understand or appreciate it, right? But it's quite incredible how much better this translates on stage than it does in book form. Normally, I adore reading Shakespeare, but the inconsistent and confusing characters in Hamlet really do operate as a template for directors to adjust to suit their own purposes. They certainly don't offer a satisfying read. This is the biggest example of a Shakespeare play that was adjusted so much in its performance stages that it lacks a standard form, and any edition in existence is going to be an unfortunate mishmash of ideas from different actors, directors, and editors. This appears to be why Polonius is both crafty and comical, why Fortinbras is both capable and confusing, and why the ghost may or may not have been genuine.
On a more positive note, for these reasons, it lends itself wonderfully to study and analysis. Probably more so than any other Shakespeare play.
On a more positive note, for these reasons, it lends itself wonderfully to study and analysis. Probably more so than any other Shakespeare play.
Closer to 4.5 stars than 4.
The latest in my delayed Shakespearean education, and arguably the crown jewel of both that education and Shakespeare’s oeuvre itself - I can now say with conviction that this is a rightfully acclaimed masterpiece. The only thing keeping it from 5 stars is the gap in taste and stylings over the last 4 centuries that render parts of it (and much of Shakespeare) less accessible than modern texts, but really it deserves all 5 for the complexity and richness of thought and color it displays, and for the potency with which it’s remained in the public canon.
Coming off of Macbeth in particular, whose story arcs are majestic and (literally) epic but whose plotting sometimes moves with an efficiency that leaves little room for grand philosophizing or drawn out characterization, Hamlet plays like the definition of a rich text. It’s truly wild to read a character as confounding and introspective as Hamlet from so long ago, as his constant wishy-washy deliberating and waxing poetic show the kind of non-traditional masculinity and inner life that’s only relatively recently become common in modern fiction heroes.
Hamlet’s eccentricity is only one of the oddities that imbue the whole play with a certain je ne sais quoi that I can only assume has played an outsized role in maintaining its relevance across time. Reading the (often frustratingly ambiguous) text, it’s easy to imagine these characters and scenes being interpreted and played in 15 completely different ways, and that’s to say nothing of the way many characters seem to put on entirely new outlooks and tones from scene to scene. It can be confusing on the micro level, but the play taken at large still manages to feel cohesive, the dangling ends pulled taut around the intrigue and irony of the central plot.
I’ve read a decent bit of Shakespeare’s major works by now, but none of them has left me with such an immediate appreciation for both the narrative and thematic heavy-lifting ol’ Billy accomplished as Hamlet. I really enjoyed this, and like the best of Billy, I can see how its inventions have colored so many of my beloved works of storytelling in the centuries since. That said, Shakespeare’s literary and theatrical accomplishments pale in comparison to the most monumental achievement of his storied legacy: laying the groundwork for a meme 400 years later. “Good night, sweet Prince” indeed.
The latest in my delayed Shakespearean education, and arguably the crown jewel of both that education and Shakespeare’s oeuvre itself - I can now say with conviction that this is a rightfully acclaimed masterpiece. The only thing keeping it from 5 stars is the gap in taste and stylings over the last 4 centuries that render parts of it (and much of Shakespeare) less accessible than modern texts, but really it deserves all 5 for the complexity and richness of thought and color it displays, and for the potency with which it’s remained in the public canon.
Coming off of Macbeth in particular, whose story arcs are majestic and (literally) epic but whose plotting sometimes moves with an efficiency that leaves little room for grand philosophizing or drawn out characterization, Hamlet plays like the definition of a rich text. It’s truly wild to read a character as confounding and introspective as Hamlet from so long ago, as his constant wishy-washy deliberating and waxing poetic show the kind of non-traditional masculinity and inner life that’s only relatively recently become common in modern fiction heroes.
Hamlet’s eccentricity is only one of the oddities that imbue the whole play with a certain je ne sais quoi that I can only assume has played an outsized role in maintaining its relevance across time. Reading the (often frustratingly ambiguous) text, it’s easy to imagine these characters and scenes being interpreted and played in 15 completely different ways, and that’s to say nothing of the way many characters seem to put on entirely new outlooks and tones from scene to scene. It can be confusing on the micro level, but the play taken at large still manages to feel cohesive, the dangling ends pulled taut around the intrigue and irony of the central plot.
I’ve read a decent bit of Shakespeare’s major works by now, but none of them has left me with such an immediate appreciation for both the narrative and thematic heavy-lifting ol’ Billy accomplished as Hamlet. I really enjoyed this, and like the best of Billy, I can see how its inventions have colored so many of my beloved works of storytelling in the centuries since. That said, Shakespeare’s literary and theatrical accomplishments pale in comparison to the most monumental achievement of his storied legacy: laying the groundwork for a meme 400 years later. “Good night, sweet Prince” indeed.
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
I’m stage managing,
and was on-book for tonight
reading the whole script
///
Great shit! I’ve directed this play before, and acted in it too. Now without creative input I can greatly appreciate the rich source material and how much can be mined from this half millennium old piece.
and was on-book for tonight
reading the whole script
///
Great shit! I’ve directed this play before, and acted in it too. Now without creative input I can greatly appreciate the rich source material and how much can be mined from this half millennium old piece.