Abstract
HAMLET ON DIFFERENT SCREENS
This study discusses Shakespeare’s questions and contradictions in Hamlet. Hamlet, the secrecy of which is agreed by everybody, gains its reputation by the characteristics of incomprehensibility and mystification. Shakespeare’s intriguing play, Hamlet is such an excellent work that this eternal play can be adapted to the cinema many times owing to the unanswered questions that each character raises. In this study, three cinematic adaptations are concerned. Each adaptation answers the questions and tries to solve the puzzle in different ways. Naturally, the masterpiece has different tastes in the three adaptations. Each adaptation answers the questions and tries to solve the puzzle in different ways. The purpose of this study is to differentiate between the three cinematic adaptations on account of the main character, Hamlet; the two female characters, Gertrude and Ophelia; the two male characters, Claudius and King Hamlet; and the scene of the soliloquy “To be or not to be”. This study is an evidence of Shakespeare’s contradictions and questions in his works. By analysing and criticizing the three cinematic adaptations, it is proved that Shakespeare’s works are timeless and immortal because they are open to interpretation. The Hamlet film versions indicate that if thousands of directors adapted Hamlet, they would all be disqualified for adapting enigmatic Hamlet.
Keywords
Hamlet, Gertrude, Ophelia, Claudius, King Hamlet
