ACT III SCENE I – HAMLET AND OPHELIA

Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It recounts how Prince Hamlet of Denmark goes about taking revenge for his father by killing his murderer, Claudius. In act 3, scene 1 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fail to report the reason for Hamlets ‘madness’, so Ophelia, Hamlet’s lover, is instructed by Claudius to see if his ‘madness’ is caused by her. I chose to perform this scene because it shows key elements of Hamlets character, his contemplative yet cynical side, shown fully in his famous “to be, or not to be” soliloquy and Hamlet’s rash and impulsive side, showing his anger at Ophelia as well as his unpredictability. The area that I focused on was from the start of his soliloquy to where he leaves Ophelia before her “oh what a noble mind” speech.

I started the scene in silence, keeping a neutral body posture, and slowly began with “to be, or not to be”, instead of making it a huge dramatic statement, I chose to make it more hesitant, with a lengthened pause at the comma, this was done to make it look like it was a statement that had just come to Hamlet. Hamlet is a scholar and a philosopher and I was trying to portray this by making it seem as if he had discovered this notion of the ‘point of existence’, a key recurring theme throughout the whole of the play. Hamlet is not talking about a wish to commit suicide, in fact he does not use the words “I” or “me” throughout the whole speech, which meant that the speech was more rhetorical than personal. I tried to portray this by conducting the speech as if it were two balanced sides of an argument. In an underlying tone that would be used to say the phrases like on the one hand for the line “whether tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and on the other hand, “or to take arms against a sea of troubles”.  I also had to show how Hamlet related to the speech, showing how he contemplated the idea of ending all his troubles through death, but without actually expressing the actual desire to kill himself, so I put emphasis on lines like “to die, to sleep” and using lengthened pauses to make is seem like he was in pensive state. This ‘argument’ then brings him to the issue with his issue of “being”, which was that of not knowing what comes after death, which Hamlet concludes is what all men fear, “thus conscience does make cowards of us all”. I said this line with a defeatist tone, lowering my voice and adding a sigh to show Hamlets philosophical and cynical attributes made him come to this conclusion.  

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When Ophelia enters, Hamlet is initially glad to see her, although he is still in his pensive mood, this was achieved by him smiling when facing her and returning to a more sombre expression when turned away, emphasised by the three “well”s which are in response to Ophelia demanding how hamlet is. The first is higher pitched, and said with a smile to show how hamlet is happy to be standing in front of his love, the second is more to himself, said with a more questioning feel to it, and the last is more for the audiences benefit who ...

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