#Olivier hamlet full movie how to#

The Significance of the Ghost and its Ambiguity in Hamletįairies, goblins, ghosts, witches, and spirits supernatural beings occur in many of Shakespeare’s works. By linking my own observations to those of other literary scholars, I will hopefully be able to prove my thesis in the conclusion of this paper. Primarily, an overview of each film by itself will be provided, then the representation of the Ghost will be described and afterwards analysed with regard to the Ghost’s ambiguity. In the subsequent chapter I will take a close look at the Hamlet adaptations of Olivier and Branagh. It will be shown that Shakespeare did not embed a Ghost in Hamlet to simply entertain the audience, but that the Ghost is a central character of the play. In order to prove my thesis, at first the significance of the Ghost and its ambiguity in Hamlet will be explained. My thesis is that in neither adaptation the Ghost is clearly marked as good spirit or evil demon, but the ambiguity between those two options is maintained in both adaptations the directors play with this equivocality to retain the tension of the audience. Therefore, I chose two screen adaptations of Hamlet - this choice will be justified in chapter 3 - and examined how the Ghost is represented in each of them. To prove that this thesis is also applicable on film adaptations of Hamlet is the aim of this term paper. As Constanze Pleinen detected correctly in Das Übernatürliche bei Shakespeare, the Ghost’s ambiguity explains the perseverative popularity of the play if it could be definitely clarified that the Ghost is either a good or evil spirit, a lot of tension would be lost for the audience and reader (76). However, the actual question is not if the Ghost is good or evil, but what William Shakespeare aimed at with the integration of a character so difficult to capture. Many Hamlet scholars argued for the one and the other side, and convincing arguments for both points of view exist. They lie between extremes some consider the Ghost an evil spirit whose call for revenge should have been ignored 2, and others stick with the opposite opinion that the Ghost is truly the spirit of Hamlet’s father returned from purgatory because that is what the Ghost himself states (1.5.9-14). Over the years, various scholarly interpretations of the Ghost were established.

#Olivier hamlet full movie how to#

Even Hamlet himself is agonised with this issue:īe thou a spirit of health or goblin damn’d, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable (1.4.40-42 1 ) Therefore, it is only logical that also film-makers are not sure about how to represent the Ghost: As a demon from hell? Or as an honest embodiment of Hamlet’s father? For many years, scholars are concerned with the questions of the Ghost’s origin and purpose. By taking a closer look at the Ghost in Hamlet, it becomes obvious why it is so difficult for stage directors and film-makers to visualise the Ghost. This problem is unfolded by Samuel Crowl in his book Screen Adaptations: Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But the history of Hamlet on film reveals that film-makers are often as stumped as stage directors in how to handle the Ghost (43).

Film seems a medium even more receptive to handling the supernatural than the stage because of its technical abilities and special effects. A Changing Ghost – From Demon to Purified MonkĪll Hamlet films face the particular problem of how to handle the ghost of Hamlet’s father.

Representing the Ghost as Moving Statueģ.2.3. Hamlet as Bright and Opulent Winter Taleģ.2.2. Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet: a Full-Text Masterpieceģ.2.1. An Ambiguous Ghost throughout the Filmģ.2. The Ghost as a Shadowy and Misty Figureģ.1.3. Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet: A Classicģ.1.2. The Representation of the Ghost in Two Film Adaptationsģ.1. The Significance of the Ghost and its Ambiguity in Hamletģ.