Comparisons Between The Movie And Play Hamlet

Term Paper Title	Comparisons Between The Movie And Play Hamlet
# of Words	562
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	2.25

Comparisons between the movie and play Hamlet

Comparisons between the movie and play Hamlet

Ben Evans

Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet was originally written as a play, but as time
has passed it has been produced, on many different occasions, as a motion
picture. The two forms share many similar scenes throughout the work. Three of
these scenes are Hamlet's encounter with his father's ghost, Hamlet's killing of
Polonius, and Hamlet's final battle with Laretes.

The first major similarity between the play and the movie comes when Hamlet
sees and talks with the ghost of his recently murdered father. In lines ten
through thirteen the ghost exclaims to Hamlet, "Doomed for a certain term
to walk the night and for the day confined to fast in fires till the foul crimes
done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away." Likewise in the
movie, this emotion fills Hamlet's mind with both sorrow and hatred for his
uncle. "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." (lines 30-33) The
ghost makes an emotional plea for Hamlet to revenge against Claudius. Hamlet
replies with a promise to his father's ghost, "Haste me to know't, that I,
with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love may sweep to my
revenge."

Another major comparison between the movie and the play comes when Hamlet
goes to confront his mother about her involvement in his father's death and ends
up killing Polonius. Gertrude, feeling Hamlet's disgust for her actions, fears
that he might murder her. As seen in lines 22-33 of Act III scene IV she calls
for the help of the hidden Polonius. "What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not
murder me? Help, ho!" In the movie Gertrude has an extremely worried
expression on her face and as sh...

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