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Taylor Clapp
4/1/12
EN 432P
Dr. Palmer
To Stage or not to stage? Kenneth Branagh and the use of film in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
and his Three Soliloquies.
To stage, or not to stage? That has been a question central to performing any play
that Shakespeare wrote since they were performed at the original Globe Theater. Since
then, the medium for performing Shakespeare has evolved so that Shakespeare’s famous
plays can be produced either on the stage or in cinema. What does this do for film
directors when it comes to adapting and performing Shakespeare? For some, it has given
them total freedom to create everything truly dreadful adaptations or interpretations such
as Tim Blake Nelson’s O! or a modern masterpiece from Kenneth Branagh when he
directed and starred in Hamlet. Because Branagh used film instead of the stage, this
allows him to do unique things within the production to show Hamlet’s true intentions
behind his soliloquies, be it angst, insanity, or genuine violence and malice. Janet Maslin
calls it a “frank try anything approach to Hamlet” (Maslin 1). Or is it?
What is crucial for each soliloquy is how Shakespeare sets up his character when
they are supposed to be alone. But Shakespeare doesn’t give explicit stage directions
beyond “Exit”. He leaves these directions in the text, called an “embedded cue”.
Margaret Jane Kidnie, in her article, says “An embedded cue for action could probably no
more ambiguous than this, assuming that the cue will be taken up by performers, offer a
perceptive reading of the text” (Kidnie 106). Because the embedded cues are so
ambiguous, they is a lot of room for interpretation as how the particular director sets up
each soliloquy. In Branagh’s Hamlet, the words that Shakespeare uses are no more than
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“Madam, come” spoken by Claudius to Gertrude (1.2.122). In his film, Branagh sets this
in the Great Hall in Elsinore right after Claudius and Gertrude have wed and implored
Hamlet to stay with them and not to return to Wittenberg to return to school. Their
procession out of the hall is in a grand proportion as everybody is cheering, confetti is
flying everywhere, and it is the cause for a celebration and then Hamlet is left alone in the
room, allowing Branagh to do the soliloquy. Because he uses a grand celebration, the
angst in Hamlet’s soliloquy can be understood, especially in how he speaks it.
What allows Branagh to explore the depth of Hamlet’s emotions after Claudius
and Gertrude’s grand exit is to whom he is speaking. Normally with a soliloquy this
would seem like an odd phrase but within Shakespeare it is very pertinent. Who the
character is speaking to allows those who are viewing the production a key insight to the
production. Peter Holland uses Patsy Rodenburg’s three circles to help deliver his point.
The three circles are ways that an actor prepares when speaking lines within a production.
Each circle has unique characteristics to them. For Hamlet’s first soliloquy, Holland
would qualify that in the first circle. The first circle is “where you engage with yourself.
Here you speak, listen, and use language from within yourself” (qtd by Holland 43). That
is what Branagh uses to help give his audience a way to see Hamlet’s emotion in this
soliloquy. He clearly speaks to himself using language from within himself to convey a
sense of anguish that is derived from the text. The audience can especially see this
anguish and angst when he launches in to the line “Frailty, thy name is women!”
(1.2.146). This is not an angry cry, nor triumphant, as if he is trying to prove the
superiority of man. It is a cry made in anguish that comes within him, as Branagh shows
within his character.
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In his article Holland says that an actor “cannot talk the talk unless they can walk
the walk” (Holland 43). Because of the way Branagh has adapted the embedded cues
from earlier and set up a solid setting for Branaghs’s Hamlet to both walk the walk and
talk the talk. Like the embedded cues for the first two soliloquies, Branagh keeps
Hamlet’s speech in the traditional way, speaking in the first circle. In the first soliloquy
and second, Hamlet speaks to no one in particular. He embodies what Rodenburg says
“Here you speak and listen and use language from within yourself” (qtd by Holland 43).
From Hamlet’s physical actions do we see how Branagh draws the language from within,
especially in the second soliloquy. When Hamlet goes into the “Who calls me villain”,
Branagh speaks this portion very fast and in the process breaks a few things within the
closet he has been placed in. His words and actions have melded together and have come
from within. Everything builds in to what Hamlet has spoken, the setting and his voice.
As the plot is pushed further into the play the audience comes upon the second
soliloquy within Hamlet. This one is much different than the first one, but the embedded
cues and to whom Hamlet speaks remain relatively the same. As I stated earlier, the
ambiguity that Shakespeare leaves within the text allow for a very creative approach to
Hamlet. With Kenneth Branagh, he seizes the opportunity to uses the ambiguity to show
his audience more into Hamlet’s emotional state within the play. When we come to the
second soliloquy within the play it seems as if Hamlet is pushing away the people within
the text so he can be alone. In the text he says “Follow that lord (Polonius)” (2.2.521) and
the goes into the soliloquy with “Now I am alone” (2.2.527). There is no explicit
direction on how Hamlet should be left alone. With Branagh he has Hamlet move
everybody away, almost forcefully so he can be alone. When the actors and Polonius
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finally leave he slams the door shut and presses his forehead in a moment of quiet
desperation. It is also where Hamlet is, physically, that Branagh uses to show Hamlet’s
emotion within the soliloquy. The room is small, akin to a study or closet. With the
blocking that Branagh uses, Hamlet moves around violently as he speaks the lines. All of
this help emphasize the lines he is speaking.
As with the first soliloquy, Branagh employs the first circle to show Hamlet’s
emotions for the second soliloquy. He uses language from within himself to speak to
himself, though not to convey anguish but insanity. Initially, within the text, the language
doesn’t give indication that Hamlet is insane throughout and desperate to begin, but that
is how Branagh chooses to interpret the text. Branagh uses a series of transitions of
emotions with the text to help convey an overall sense of insanity. The first is
desperation, desperation of his current state of being and what he has to do. This happens
when he says “Could force his soul so to his whole conceit” (2.2.530). What Hamlet says
is that he can’t live in this imagined situation anymore. Branagh takes this text and uses it
to show Hamlet’s desperation. As the soliloquy progresses into an almost nonsensical
violence, Branagh conveys with the physical side of Hamlet’s acting to convey this along
with the words. It starts with the lines “Am I a coward?” (2.2.548) and ends with the line
“O Vengeance!” (2.2.559). Over eleven lines, Hamlet becomes physically violent and
smashes several objects. This is a unique way to convey Hamlet’s emotional side instead
of just relying on the text. With the last part of this soliloquy, Branagh really emphasizes
Hamlet’s insanity with the lines “I’ll have these players / Play something like the murder
of my father / Before mine uncle” (2.2.571-3). With these final lines in the soliloquy,
Branagh has his Hamlet literally
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Arguably the climax of the play is the third soliloquy and it is the most unique soliloquy
within the play. It marks a change in the way Shakespeare sets it up and the way Hamlet
speaks. Within the text, Shakespeare is much more deliberate in how he indicates what is
to happen in this soliloquy. The first is in the words that Claudius speaks before the
soliloquy. He calls himself and Polonius “lawful espials” or essentially “spies” (3.1.34).
They have made their intention clear that they are going to spy on Hamlet. This ties in to
the last line before Hamlet’s soliloquy where Polonius says, “I hear him coming. Let’s
withdraw my lord” (3.1.57). The way Hamlet is introduced in this scene is in a room
within Elsinore Castle that is filled with mirrors. Hamlet acts as if he is aware of the
presence of Claudius and Polonius. Branagh has Hamlet approach the spot where
Claudius and Polonius are hiding. As the soliloquy progresses Hamlet draws a dagger.
Branagh sticks with the way Shakespeare deliberately introduces this rather than a more
traditional way of having Hamlet alone on stage.
As the scene is staged differently, the emotions in this soliloquy are
different than the previous ones as well. Instead of inward emotions Branagh has Hamlet
express outward emotions that indicate violence and malice. The change comes with a
change in Rodenburg’s circles, from the first circle to the second circle which is
“connecting, listening, and speaking to individuals. It is not random. In the second circle
we speak to connect” (qtd by Holland 43-4). Every word of this soliloquy that Hamlet
speaks is meant to connect with Claudius and Polonius. His intention is heard through
quiet inflection of his voice. Branagh, through Hamlet, wants Claudius and Polonius to
know that he is very serious. Especially when he speaks the lines,
The pangs of disprized love, the laws delay,
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The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? (3.1.74-8)
These lines are meant to be directed towards Claudius and Branagh instead of posing this
as a question makes it sound like a statement. Branagh’s voice is dripping with malice,
outrage, and anger that indicate a violent storm within him. This is not random either.
Everything about this is intentional and shapes the rest of the play until the ending.
In James Berardinelli’s review of Hamlet, he praises Branagh’s amazing visual
sense throughout the entire soliloquies (Berardinelli 1). Even though Maslin says that
Branagh has a frank approach to Shakespeare, she says he preserves the entertainment
value (Maslin 1). Through the lens of the camera that Branagh uses the emotions of
Hamlet throughout the play. The amazing visual sense indicates the creativity that
Branagh uses to showcase this emotion that pours from every pore of Hamlet. The
emotions give the audience a genuine feeling of what Hamlet is feeling instead of
needing a bunch of English majors to tell them otherwise.
Works Cited
Berardinelli, James. "Hamlet (1996)." Rev. of Hamlet. 1996. Web.
<http://www.reelviews.net/movies/h/hamlet.html>.
Hamlet. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Perf. Kenneth Branagh. Castle Rock Entertainment, 1996. DVD.
Holland, Peter. "Shakespeare's Two Bodies." Shakespeare and Performance (2005): 43-44. Print
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Kidnie, Margaret Jane. "Where Is Hamlet? Text, Performance, and Adaptation." Shakespeare
and Performance (2005): 102-07. Web.
Maslin, Janet. "More Things in 'Hamlet' Than Are Dreamt Of In Other Adaptations." Rev. of
Hamlet. The New York Times 25 Dec. 1996. Web
Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Shakespeare. 2nd ed. New York: W.W Norton,
2008. 1696-784. Print.