Olivier exposes Gertrude as a guilt ridden and self-contempt type character, however she abandons her grief and gets lost in physicality. Once again, very like Zeffierlli’s portrayal, Gertrude is a victim of her own appetite. Olivier’s adaptation is made believable by the intense overemphasise Hamlet puts on his mother’s actions, despite the ghosts commands. During this scene, Gertrude sees pictures of both her deceased husband and Claudius. Gertrude has Claudius’s picture clasped round her neck and Hamlet has his father’s picture around his, showing where each of their loyalties fall.
Olivier’s portrayal of Gertrude and Hamlets relationship is intensely Freudian. There are blatant appearances that the two are caught up in an incestuous affair. For example, Olivier presents the audience with many images of Hamlet and Gertrude in lovers’ poses. There are many ambiguous images, where Olivier is exposing conflicting ideas of mother versus lover, once again reinforcing the Freudian overtones.
Many times, Olivier presents the audience with an Oedipal embrace with excessive kissing and caressing, from Gertrude. However, there is an on going conflict within Hamlet’s mind, which adds to the plays main focus, “a man who could not make up his mind.” Hamlet is dealing with many psychological conflict, madness and melancholy being the centre attention for Olivier. Particularly, in this scene we are presented with Hamlet need to be a “little boy” and the tension of the Oedipal relationship he has established with his mother. The Oedipal theme is then reinforced by the aggressive nature of Hamlet towards Claudius; he is clinching his fists and is represented as wanting to kill Claudius. Thereby adding to the Freud idea, of the classic psychoanalytic model of the primal fantasy, to do away with one parent out of rivalry and jealousy to steal the love of the other parent.
The next time we see Gertrude she rejects Claudius’s affection, she moves her hand away when Claudius touches her this is significant because Hamlet has succeeded in alienating Claudius from Gertrude. It is obvious that Gertrude wants physicality and passion but she resists it. This is made clear by the physical rejection to Claudius and also the fact that Claudius going up one flight of stairs and Gertrude goes up another. Olivier creating two images one of a physical nature and the other of a metaphysical distinction, both ideas portray Gertrude’s change in character. There has been an explicit change in Gertrude; she is physically affectionate but not sexual. She is now presented as a more maternal figure; this is first shown by her warm, mother type nature towards Ophelia. This idea is established further in the final scene.
During Gertrude’s final scene, she is quite unsure and deeply suspicious of the situation. Olivier focuses on Gertrude during this scene in order for the audience to establish an understanding of the situation. Gertrude then makes, what is depicted as, a conscious decision to take the poison thinking she is saving her son. This adds to depth to Gertrude’s character and presents her a maternal figure, almost contradicting the Freudian interpretation.
Ophelia on the other hand the icon of femininity in the seventeenth century in both appearance and personality. Her physical appearance is very striking and gives the viewer an immediate impression. She is conventionally blonde with golden locks and dressed in white; almost doll like in her overall appearance. Ophelia is the victim from the beginning; she is told by her brother not to lose her virginity to Hamlet and she response in a very passive and slightly half-witted manner. Of course this is intentional, Olivier has created a traditionally beautiful yet air-headed Ophelia, played by a very young Jean Simmons.
From the very beginning the audience depicts Ophelia as the victim; she is given very little freedom and treated very much like a doll by the men in her life. She has no will of her own and this is made obvious when she is told to put on a façade towards Hamlet by her father. She immediately looks to her father when she is lost for words, revealing that she has no mind of her own. This is reinforced at the very beginning when Ophelia follows Polonius, hanging on his each word whilst playing with her brother; here Olivier is representing the male domination in Ophelia’s world.
The audience is almost made to feel that Ophelia is too pure for this male dominated world, Olivier creating a pre-echo of what is too happen to Ophelia. She is totally used by the men in her life; this is particularly prominent during the ‘play within a play’, when Hamlet simply uses Ophelia as a soundboard, to get to Gertrude. During this scene Ophelia is totally bewildered, she has no answer to any of his questions and does not even make eye contact with Hamlet. Furthermore, there is no real response by Ophelia to the play thus reinforcing her ‘air-headed’ portrayal of the character.
The next time we see Ophelia she is surrounded by nature, almost like a nature spirit, once again a clear pre-echo of the ending. The music played in the background during this scene defines Ophelia’s character: beautiful and delicate. Furthermore, Ophelia has flowers in her hair, which emphasize her relationship with nature and add to her innocence.
Once she enters the castle she is greeted by Gertrude who unlike Glenn Close in the Zeffirelli production is very maternal towards Ophelia. This supports the idea of the cold male dominated society in which both Gertrude and Ophelia are forced to live. Ophelia is represented as the stereotypical female, utterly prostrate and laying the floor in hysterical tears. Jean Simmons portrayal is very childlike; she is helpless. Yet Ophelia remains beautiful in her mad state, with her large innocent eyes and in no way is she at all challenging. Olivier noticeably places Ophelia on her knees with her finger in a mouth; which is an extremely childlike image. Time and time again the childlike nature of the mad Ophelia is made clear, she is extremely petulant, “my brother should know of it.” Also she is bemused and entirely unable to deal with anything, which is in many respects just like an adolescent teenager.
Even though Ophelia is singing rude songs, the audience is not made to feel any negative feeling towards Ophelia because she sings the songs so beautifully and purely, muffling the rude words. She places rosemary for remembrance on Hamlet’s chair, which is yet again a pre-echo of what is to happen to Ophelia, there are symbols throughout the production to show what will become of Ophelia. Her face is a picture of a mad woman whose innocence is about to be crushed, and Jean Simmons plays this part so well.
Olivier then presents us with an image of Ophelia returning back to the green world of nature, which is exactly where she belongs, where she can be represented as a pastoral spirit. It is within nature that she dies, which is significant considering she is the only character to do so. Olivier is recreating the image that John Everett Millais created ‘Ophelia drowning’; by referring to great art it depicts the high-class nature of the production. Running throughout this production are strong motifs, Ophelia’s portrayal is no different, the audience is shown the place where we first saw Ophelia reading her love letters from Hamlet.
Ophelia is grudgingly given a burial, which makes one think, what hope has such a young girl got against such an established society. Even on her deathbed, Ophelia cannot be given a quiet funeral; she is hauled around by the men in her life. Olivier goes so far so to portray Hamlet as having so sorrow whatsoever, he is obsessed with himself, Laertes and revenge. This reinforces the fact that the production concentrates specifically on Hamlet’s state of mind, and even at Ophelia’s burial the focus still remains on the lead character.
Finally, Olivier approaches both Gertrude and Ophelia in a very stereotypical manner. Very little attention is given to either character unless it adds depth to the main focus, Hamlet. Very much like Zeffirelli’s production we are made to feel great sadness towards Ophelia. However, Gertrude’s portrayal is slightly different in this production compared to Zeffirelli’s, we are made to realise the maternal nature of Gertrude only at the very end making the audience see her less as a sexual character and more as a mother. It is because of her final actions at the end of the play that we feel great sorrow and a certain amount of respect towards her for her bravery.