HamletHamlet

By Kyle Koehler

Mr. Koehler’s 5th Period English

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Modern Day Hamlet

• My modern day Hamlet will be set around My modern day Hamlet will be set around a large corporation, El Sinore, a major a large corporation, El Sinore, a major pharmaceutical company. Hamlet’s father pharmaceutical company. Hamlet’s father will be the CEO of the company who will be the CEO of the company who suffers from a heart attack, and Mr. suffers from a heart attack, and Mr. Dwayne Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, will Dwayne Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, will step in to replace him.step in to replace him.

Hamlet• Daniel-Day LewisDaniel-Day Lewis• He would play a great dramatic He would play a great dramatic

actor. He has certainly proven his actor. He has certainly proven his chops with his last films.chops with his last films.

• About thirty years old at the start of About thirty years old at the start of the play, Hamlet is melancholy, the play, Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, yet thoughtful bitter, and cynical, yet thoughtful and reflective.and reflective.

• Lewis’ film history does not seem Lewis’ film history does not seem to be too far off from the title role. to be too far off from the title role. Pensive, confused and angry seem Pensive, confused and angry seem to be his type.to be his type.

For they are the actions that a man might play,

But I have that within which passes show,

These but the trappings and the suits of woe. (I.ii.84-6)

Horatio

• Hugh Jackman• Plays the charming, loveable

character so well.• Horatio is Hamlet’s best

friend, and is a good character, acting not only as a foil for the prince but a harbinger of truth.

• Plus, he’s dreamy too.

"Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man

As e'er my conversation cop'd withal."

Ophelia• Helena Bonham Carter• Polonius’s daughter, a beautiful young

woman with whom Hamlet has been in love. Ophelia is a sweet and innocent young girl, who obeys her father and her brother, Laertes.

• Even in her lapse into madness and death, she remains maidenly, singing songs about flowers and finally drowning in the river amid the flower garlands she had gathered.

• Can play the adorable scenes the Ophelia needs to fulfill, while being perfectly able to handle the crazy ones too.

• She handled the role of Ophelia well in the previous rendition with Mel Gibson.

I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love,  Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

Laertes

• Liev Schreiber• He fits the depiction of who Laertes

is. And he even played him in the 2000 rendition of Hamlet!

• Laertes is often portrayed by Laertes is often portrayed by seemingly humble actors of the seemingly humble actors of the screen, to give a loyal, wholesome screen, to give a loyal, wholesome appeal to the character. appeal to the character.

• I pictured him in the final fight with Hamlet.

"I dare damnation. To this point I stand,That both the world, I give to negligence,Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'dMost throughly for my father."

Claudius

• Gary Oldman• He is devious.• He can be charming.• Claudius is shrewd and able, though

not always ethical or moral, Hamlet describes the contest of intelligence and will between them as that of ''mighty opposites'' (V.ii.62).

• He is perfect for the role.

"O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven"

(Act III, Scene 3)

Gertrude

• Christine Rose• She plays a conniving mother

on a TV show and that character seems to fit this character.

• Gertrude loves Hamlet, and yet we often forget it with her confused love of her son and her hasty husband.

"I doubt it is no other but the main; His father's death and our o'erhasty marriage."

Polonius

• Donald Sutherland

• The description of Polonius reminds me Donald Sutherland.

• Polonius was played as a somewhat senile, garrulous man of about seventy-five or so.

• Sutherland could play this charming, older man well.

"foolish prating knave"

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern

• Paul Rudd & Seth Rogen• Play the duo roles very well, and I

would love to see them in a role like this.

• They have the same possible humor that I imagine Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have.

• They act as a foil to Horatio, whom Hamlet trusts dearly!"I will trust

them as I will adders fang’d”

TranslatedTo be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?

To die, or not to die, that is the real question. Is it better to just stay here and suffer, or to fight the suffering, and by fighting it, end it! To die, to sleep, no more and by sleeping we end the heartache and troubles that humans suffer. To die, to sleep; to sleep; perchance to dream, there is the scary part. When we do die, what will the afterlife be like? Why would we suffer the trials of one world, only to meet worse in the next?

Why care about Hamlet?• Hamlet’s story will still resonate with

today’s population, especially it’s youth, because it understands this heartache, and this trouble. Even though Hamlet was written a long time ago, it is still relevant. Hamlet’s troubles are not so different from our own, and if we can just suffer through the language, we would see how much we can learn from Sir Hamlet.