LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Hamlet
built 185 days ago
Polonius's daughter, a beautiful young woman with whom Hamlet has been in love. A sweet and innocent young girl, Ophelia dutifully strives to obey her father and her brother, Laertes, allowing Polonius to use her in his scheme to spy on Hamlet. When her father dies, her sanity unravels, and in her madness she paints a scathing picture of young men as sexually exploitative and unfaithful, and her mad speeches about flowers conceal implied condemnations of Claudius and Gertrude.
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The Hamlet sleeper has it all – the rich look of leather and the versatility of welcoming overnight guests with ease. The sofa boasts warm brown chenille cushions with a coordinating floral top and multi loose pillowbacks in solid, floral and diamond patterns. Solid and floral pillows are adorned with fringe. Rolled arms, nailhead trim and wood bun feet add noteworthy details that you’ll love. Queen size mattress pulls out for valuable extra sleeping space.
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Does Hamlet have alternatives to his involvement in the court politics and intrigue at Elsinore? What are those alternatives? Where was Hamlet before his coming to Elsinore for his father's funeral and his mother's wedding? What does such a place represent?
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At Capeside High, Hamlet comes up with a new plan to get a confession from Claudius. He decides to make a movie about his life and his father's incarceration, which will certainly force Claudius to confess. He brings in a bunch of actors (all B-movie stars from the recent teen-movie explosion), bangs out a self-pitying script, and forces Ophelia to work as a DA on the movie. When one of his actors conveniently "gets sick", Hamlet asks Claudius to fill in in the murderer part. Claudius initially plays the part with gusto until he realizes what the script is actually saying, when he loses it, calls Hamlet a loser and runs from the scene. Hamlet tries to make Horatio and everyone admit that this outburst must mean that Claudius is guilty, but the others on the set point out that Claudius loses it a lot.
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In trying to understand Hamlet, one should start with the fact that it was one of Shakespeare's most commercially successful productions. Now Shakespeare's audience did not come to the Globe for a cultural experience or a deep thought-provoking character study comparable to a contemporary play by Eugene O'Neill or even Tennessee Williams; they came for entertainment. When thinks about the lugubrious play we now see performed, with its neurotic hero, and tries to imagine this being a major hit in Shakespeare's theatre, either we have to decide that we are drastically mistaken about the nature of the Elizabethan audience, or we have to realize that we have completely failed to understand what kind of a play Hamlet is. (From a very interesting chapter called "Hamlet on Stage and Screen" by Sylvan Barnet in the 1998 Signet edition of Hamlet, we learn that that it was not until Edmund Keen's performance of the role in 1814 that one finds the angst-ridden neurotic character that we think of as Hamlet today. On the other hand, one certainly can't say that earlier performances were more faithful to the true spirit of Shakespeare. Seventeenth century theatre commonly deleted several of the soliloquies, and David Garrick's 1772 performance rewrote the Fifth Act so that when Claudius orders Hamlet to go to England, Hamlet replies by stabbing him.)
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Kenneth Branagh's four-hour production of Shakespeare's full text for Hamlet is visually lush (shot in 70mm, which is rarely done) and full of fascinating story moments that normally get cut from shorter stage versions. (Your idea of what kind of fellow Polonius is may change quite a bit.) The unexpurgated approach is truly enlightening, and Branagh intermittently succeeds at giving familiar moments in the drama an original cinematic spin, including Hamlet's spooky confrontation with his father's ghost (Brian Blessed). (Branagh ... imposes some Hollywood glitter on the proceedings by casting the likes of Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Charlton Heston, and Jack Lemmon in the smaller parts.) The pre-Titanic Kate Winslet is very good as the doomed Ophelia, and Derek Jacobi delivers a wonderfully nuanced performance as Claudius, whose character is definitely filled out by the restored material. Branagh's own performance is a little revisionist--some viewers have quibbled with it while others seem fine with it. --Tom Keogh
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Hamlet