Honors Essay #3

Hamlet has been around for over four hundred years. It has continually been read in high schools, colleges, and at the comfort of our own homes. Hamlet has stood the test of time and does not appear to be going away any time soon, or ever. In fact, the play has inspired various movie plots, character types, and sparked discussions and literary analysis.

Hamlet’s plot has been the inspiration for writers who create their own versions of Hamlet.  The plot has been interpreted into movies because of the creativity and unpredictability it utilizes. Shakespeare balanced action and conversation and turned Hamlet into a play that was both plot and character driven. His use of twists and turns, created a play that was driven by action, yet the soliloquies Hamlet spoke and the revealing characteristics displayed within the dialogue allowed the play to also be character driven. The balance between these two makes for a play that can appeal to a variety of audiences. Its no wonder Hamlet has been adapted into modern movies. The Lion King is the most notable adaptation of Hamlet. Animated and set in the jungle, a group of lions mimic the royal family in Hamlet. Simba, a new lion cub, is born, upsetting his uncle Scar, who then kills the king and his own brother, Mufasa. The Lion King used the same character dynamic as Hamlet but applied it to animals in a jungle, a far fetch from a royal family in Denmark. Yet the adaptation worked well and became the twentieth highest grossing movie worldwide. Recently, it was named by TIME as one of the best twenty-five animated films of all time. Though The Lion King is the most popular of the adapted movies, other films use bits of Hamlet. Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement uses the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as a comedic joke for a scene. But the plot is not the only aspect of Hamlet that has been adapted.

Shakespeare created characters with distinct personality types, otherwise known as archetypes. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and king to Denmark, is distinct for his desire to benefit his own needs. He is the definition of a king who thirsts for power and stops at nothing to get it. When Claudius’s brother, the king, got in the way of his dream to be in power, he killed him, despite the fact that he was his own brother. When the kingdom was threatened by Hamlet’s crazy behavior Claudius created a plan to rid the castle of Hamlet, all for his own benefit. His actions throughout the play reflected on a single characteristic that distinguished himself from all others. Today, archetypes have become a big hit in modern television. They are used as ways to exaggerate or emphasize a certain characteristic. The Office, an Emmy award winning sitcom on NBC, utilizes archetypes with their characters. Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell is the manager at Dunder Mifflin, a paper company, he loves his job but it completely unaware of what is going on in the workplace. Rather than focus on sales and numbers he is more interested in being liked by his fellow employees. His desire to be the manager than everyone wants to be friends with becomes the core of his character. Michaels tries to win his staff over with innovative games, to say the least. When it is time to learn about tolerance in the workplace Michael has the staff play a game where they guess what race the card on their forehead says based on other people’s reactions and dialogue. Though well intentioned, the game only fuels the hostile work environment it was intended to stop. But Michael is that boss that would get caught up in a game that has nothing to do with the work place. And that is the beauty of his character, audience members can relate to him because he is that corky and unconventional boss we’ve all had.

Hamlet has not only inspired the entertainment industry with ways to captivate an audience, but has given people something to talk about. Throughout high school and college, Shakespeare’s works are dissected and discussed, the results are various conversations and questions. One common question is the interpretation of characters. In the case of Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, some may argue that she is a terrible mother who longs for power. Her quick marriage to her ex-husband’s brother only fuels the opinion that she is after the title of queen and not grieving her husband’s death. Yet others use the fact that she married her brother in law as a case for why she is good. The belief is that she married for the better of the kingdom and to keep things how they were before, not to create an upset. That is the beauty of Shakespeare’s works. He creates plays that offer the allowance for interpretations and conversations between people who may have completely opposing views.

Shakespeare will continue to get people to talk and share their own ideas because Hamlet has not been lost through the centuries of time. Instead it has been an example of great literary work that has continued to make a name for itself, even after all these years. There won’t be a time where we do not hear of Shakespeare’s work. He is the inspiration to many writers and creative thinkers who have found their own voice through Shakespeare’s work.