Hamlet on Film. Different Views and Interpretations

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Frankfurt (Main) (Seminar fur Anglistik), course: Hamlet: Text, Context, Criticism, language: English, abstract: In his lifespan William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. However, there is one play by William Shakespeare that is considered special by many people. It is his longest and most complex play. Hamlet is a play that still is very much read and performed. Additionally it was made into feature films many times and still seems to entertain audiences around the world. There are other plays that seem to ‘return’ every couple years, when they are made into a movie or are once again performed on stage, but somehow people seem to react to Hamlet in a special way. These reactions raise the thought that the whole play seems to have something timeless and special about it. In this text, the author takes a look at three different interpretations of the play that were done on film: the Hamlet of 1990, of 1996 and of 2000 and compares the similarities and differences of these depictions.