XX

FACULTATEA DE TIINE I LITERE

LIMBI MODERNE APLICATE
ANUL III
XX

LIFE AND THE WORLD

AS A PLAY

Main theme: ART & MESSAGE

Subtheme: ART AS A SYMBOLIC CODE MEANT TO ENCODE
EXISTENCE
HAMLET, by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
HAMLET, directed by KENNETH BRANAGH(1996)

Many writers, painters or even musicians tried to reproduce lifes unique and true reality by
creating another fictive reality materialized in written texts, paintings, music etc. All these creations
reflect an idea through the message sent to these creators by the real world and forwarded by them
to us. We can say that a play is the most plausible example for this aspect when we think of
Shakespeares words from As You Like It (2/7): All the worlds a stage,/ And all the men and
women merely players:/ They have their exits and their entrances;
William Shakespeares Hamlet can be viewed as another great reference to this main idea of
life being the greatest play of each individual. One of the matters with which the philosophical
approach of Hamlet deals with is the existentialist issue as the play is famous for its to be, or not to
be speech which takes us back to all men and women in the world having their entrances and exits
which could represent birth and death. As we can see Shakespeares works are full of messages
communicated through signs and significance and he is a poet and playwright very well known for
his particular technique and form used to deliver content.
As the story of Hamlet unfolds maybe the first suggestive scene that sustains the impression
of life as a continuous play is scene 2 from act 1 when Claudius, King of Denmark, holds a speech
in a room of state in the castle, trying to embellish his rejecting attitude towards mourning the death
of his brother and the return of Prince Hamlet to his studies in Wittenberg with wisely and carefully
selected words like Though yet of Hamlet our dear brothers death or But now, my cousin Hamlet,
and my son,-- or even the following ones: Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,/ To
give these mourning duties to your father:/ But, you must know, your father lost a father; that father
lost, lost his. Thus there could be a relation between life and play, both being the process of
rendering a message because in this case the performing actor in Hamlet can be seen as the
individual in society, the room as the world and the attendants to the kings speech as the society.
The attendants get the message in a positive way with applauses from the king due to the form in
which the content of the kings speech is delivered and this form can be associated with the image
created by an individual that society receives positively if it reaches its standards.
Accordingly, in a view of the relation between an individual and the others, a message or
image can be perceived in a positive or a negative way and this is pointed out in act 2, scene 2 when
Hamlet expresses his opinion about Denmark as being a prison to him. His friends from
Wittenberg, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, disagree with him. To Rosencrantzs statement We
think not so, my lord. he replies with Why, then, tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or
bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison. Therefore the effect of the message is both
influenced by the subjectivity of the deliverer and of the receiver.
In act 2, scene 2, Hamlet tries to cover his secret anguish in front of the others but when he
remains all by himself a struggle with his own thoughts begins. He merely manages to hide his

torture while the First Player easily expressed it without living it through: O, what a rogue and
peasant slave am I!/ Is it not monstrous that this player here,/ But in a fiction, in a dream of
passion,/ Could force his soul so to his own conceit/ That from her working all his visage wannd,/
Tears in his eyes, distraction ins aspect,/ A broken voice, and his whole function suiting/ With
forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!. Somehow the First Player creates a reflection of
Hamlets reality and this is what Hamlet intends to do with the King by a re-enactment of the
murder of his father during the production of The Murder of Gonzago. This way he can assume
from his reaction, the immediate effect of the play and decide whether he is guilty of murdering his
father or not.
From a linguistic point of view, we can find very complex and long speeches. Simple
information is codified and transformed into art through metaphors and organising content and form
by means of symbolic configuration. A good example is the one already mentioned before that of
the Kings speech from the beginning of act 1, scene 2. Its length and variety of expressions
distracts the listeners attention from the information behind the words. The register used in most of
the play is a formal one but still archaic terms dominate it. Therefore in order to give an appropriate
translation to it one should have knowledge of this register both in the source and target language.
Ion Vinea, Romanian poet, can be counted among those who accomplished an adequate translation
of the play. He preserved both the atmosphere and uniqueness of the whole play as we can see
perfectly in his translation of Hamlets words when hes alone with his thoughts. Vinea uses a
powerful term in Romanian, namely becisnic that suits the impact given by the word peasant
from the original text. Its meaning is not changed as both of the words suggest worthlessness and
pity. However, the richness of phrase is not transferred in the Romanian version.
A very remarkable aspect noticed also in reviews of the film Hamlet directed by Kenneth
Branagh is the vibrantly colourful setting. Besides the fact that Branagh chose Victorian era
costuming and furnishing he used two predominant colours which we can observe from the
beginning of the film: red for the supreme role in the castle and green for the others below the king
and the queen. He visualized the play using two powerful symbols: the colour red being often
associated to energy, war, danger, strength, power and determination which are representative for
the former king who even returns from the dead for revenge and to guide his son to make justice;
and green for King Claudius this colour automatically sending one with the thought to poison used
to poison his brother and in the attempt to kill Hamlet.
To conclude Id like to compare life again with a play in which the actor is the individual,
the audience is the society (or inversely), the theatre is the world and so reality becomes art through
messages and images provided by the creators who form a second fictive reality. Each of us

perceives and receives these messages in a subjective way and the effect can be positive or
negative, fortunate or tragic depending on the choices we make and the roles we play.

Resolved handout
Read the text below:

KING CLAUDIUS

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brothers death

The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature

That we with wisest sorrow think on him,

Together with remembrance of ourselves.
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Do you think that these words are honest? Bring arguments to your answer.
- In my opinion these the Kings speech seems to be honest due to the register he uses and the
complexity with which he delivers a simple reference to the death of his brother.
Try to give an artistic or at least a raw translation of the fragment.

REGELE

Dei ni-i vie-n amintire moartea

Iubitului Hamlet, al nostru frate,
i-ar fi mai potrivit s ne-nchinm
Tristeii sufletul, i-n ara-ntreag
S fie numai jale i mhnire,
n cuget totui ne-am luptat cu firea
Att de mult, c azi cu o cuminte
Durere-l pomenim i totdeodat
Putem a ne-ngriji i de-ale noastre.
Translation by Ion Vinea