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What are your thoughts on Hamlet???

First of all, I'm just going to say that I like Hamlet a lot.

However, to be honest, it is not a play I have extensively studied as much as I should. The only way I really know how to talk about it right now is by getting into my personal history with the play. To make this post easier to follow, I'm going to break it up into parts.

1. My First Impression of Hamlet: Zeffirelli and High School English

I read it for the first time when I was 16, and the impression that my Mercutio-oriented brain had made me see a lot of queer overtones.

Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 Romeo and Juliet was my introduction to Shakespeare, so I greatly looked forward to seeing his 1990 adaptation of Hamlet. However, when I watched it I was incredibly confused.

In reading the play, I felt that the relationships between the young men-- Hamlet, Horatio, and Laertes-- was one of the play's strongest aspects. In the 1968 Romeo and Juliet, shots linger on Romeo, Mercutio, Tybalt, and Benvolio-- lovingly, as though there is far more to them and their relationships to each other below the surface of the play. This attention and care for seemingly superfluous male cannon fodder for the feud stuck with me.

However in Zeffirelli's 1990 Hamlet, shots of Laerets and Horatio feel rushed, and they do not seem intrinsically connected to the play's atmosphere of frustration, pain, and grief. When men hold each as they are dying, it feels likes poses obligated by the script and expected blocking rather than natural responses motivated by strong emotional connections between the characters. While the acting is solid, the lack of depth and nuance in the relationship between Hamlet, Horatio, and Laertes in the film really confused me because I felt that it was the heart of the text-- after all doesn't Hamlet say that he wears Horatio in his "heart's core"?

Additionally, my feelings about the text were not reinforced at all in English class. In class no one discussed the relationship between the three young men in Hamlet.

For the most part, the interpretations of Hamlet that I was seeing focused on the titular character's intelligence and grief, and seemed oblivious to the other characters. That made it difficult for me to empathize with him enough to get deeply invested in the play as a whole. With my early readings, I keenly felt that Hamlet should not want to be the Prince of Denmark. He would prefer to merely be a student at Wittenburg with Horatio. I felt that Hamlet was not really in love with Ophelia, and that there was a reason he did not mention her after the burial scene.

However, since my initial feelings about Hamlet were not validated by the discussions I was hearing in class, I thought that maybe I was imposing my own bias onto the text. The representation of Hamlet I was seeing was the "man of action" archetype-- which was hard for me to see and, as a result made it difficult for me to really care about the play. While my intuition told me that the dynamic between Hamlet and Horatio was related to the dynamic between Mercutio and Benvolio, it was something I never really discussed with anyone.

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2. "Shakespeare, Zeffirelli and the Homosexual Gaze" by William van Watson

Years went by. One day I found a 1992 article called "Shakespeare, Zeffirelli and the Homosexual Gaze" by William van Watson. which points out that: 1) homoeroticism was very much a part of Elizabethan theater and 2) Zeffirelli's Hamlet suffered from the director's religiously imposed homophobia.

Although I disagree with some of van Watson's conclusions, I will forever be grateful to him for writing the first thing I read that not only argued for Queer interpretations of Shakespeare's work, but plainly stated that Queer interpretations have been deliberately muted in academia.

"For the better part of four centuries, the same Shakespearean scholars who have praised the bard for his almost universal understanding of human psychology have been intent on straitjacketing his concept of human sexuality into a limited and conformist heterosexual polarity. There is, quite simply, more in heaven and earth, as well as in Shakespeare, than is dreamt of in this simple-minded homophobic philosophy, as recent gender deconstructive readings of such plays as The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing and particularly Twelfth Night have indicated... Unfortunately the term "Renaissance friendship" has long functioned as the closet in which certain scholars have hidden their own homophobia... Homosexuality existed in Renaissance society and Shakespeare knew it. Furthermore, Shakespeare wrote with a homosexually aware audience in mind. Otherwise, lines such as Hamlet's 'Man delights not me--nor woman neither' would not play (II.ii.309)..."

Van Watson argues that Zeffirelli granted the camera a "homosexual gaze" in his early work with lingering shot of conventionally handsome young men. This helps to make their scenes "memorable for being emotionally charged." However there is notably a distinct absence of that in in the 1990 Hamlet.

"Traditionally Hamlet dies in Horatio's arms, Horatio's famous 'Goodnight sweet prince' functioning as the empathetic climax of the play. Instead, Zeffirelli represses any potentially homoerotic tensions in the relationship of Hamlet and Horatio by undermining its intimacy... "

Van Watson writes of the reason for Zeffirelli's change in focus:

"More than two decades intervened between Zeffirelli's earlier Shakespeare films and his Hamlet. His more advanced age partially accounts for his obsession with death in this more recent work, as does his survival of a life-threatening automobile accident in 1969. In fact, this incident proved something of a turning point in Zeffirelli's life, prompting a sort of reconversion to his Catholic faith. He made a 'vow to dedicate my work to God whenever possible (Zeffirelli 238)..."

Essentially, van Watson cites Zeffirelli's recommitment to Catholicism-- and its prohibition on homosexuality-- as the reason for the skeletal relationship between the young male characters in the 1990 Hamlet.

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3. Gregory Doran's 2009 Hamlet

I did not see a production of Hamlet that resonated with me until Gregory Doran's 2009 production. David Tennant's Hamlet is clever and calculating but with just the right touch of vulnerability that allows his relationship with Peter de Jersey's Horatio to hit. It is still one of my favorite productions.

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4. Robert Icke's 2018 Hamlet

Robert Icke's Hamlet (2018) blew me away.

In an interview, that production's Hamlet, Andrew Scott said that his interpretation of Hamlet is that the character truly loves every other character he shares the stage with.

I think that is really the secret to the play. Icke's production not only gives attention to the relationship between Horatio and Hamlet, but gives due attention to Laertes and Ophelia as well. It is the best production of Hamlet that I've ever seen, and I highly recommend it.

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5. One Last Rant on Queer Theory:

For me all of Shakespeare's work should be strongly tied to Queer theory. Every character is written with the awareness that they would be played by male actors. There is a strong metatheatrical vein running through Shakespeare’s writing that draws attention to that fact. However, queerness has been suppressed on and off the stage. The continued neglect and disregard of Queerness in academic discussion is delusional. I do not know how a person can come to close to grappling with this play without Queer Theory.

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Anyway...

I like Hamlet a lot.

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Side note: I really want to see a production where the same actor playing Ophelia also plays the second grave digger and Osric, so that her presence in the final blood bath would fulfill Laertes line "A ministering angel shall my sister be / When thou liest howling."

#gregory doran #Robert icke #andrew scott #david tennant #franco zeffirelli #hamlet #john mcenery #bruce robinson #mel gibson #ophelia #horatio #this has been in my drafts forever and i apologize