i’m an english lit major, you can trust me
Tag Archives: hamlet
I have so many problems with Mel Gibson’s Hamlet, but the fact that he plays “get thee to a nunnery” as a warning to Ophelia that shit’s about to go down is so fantastic and effective.
Like why do productions insist on the abusive brothel connotation when it’s infinitely more powerful and gut-wrenching delivered as Hamlet trying to take care of Ophelia without giving himself away.
Reblogging myself to say that I saw a live Hamlet production the other day that did Gibon’s interpretation of the nunnery scene and the audience nearly cried it was such a good, emotionally moving, and logical interpretation of the scene.
Destroy Fuckboy Nunnery Interpretation 2K17.
I read Olivier as doing the same thing. He performs Fuckboy Nunnery Interpretation(™ @dark-haired-hamlet) loudly and passionately for the listeners he knows are there… and then kneels down and all but strokes Ophelia’s hair and very gently, with tears in his voice, repeats: “To a nunnery, go,” and I dissolve. Updated with link to conclusion of scene because godddd Laurence Olivier.
YES OKAY and I HATE Olivier’s Hamlet (just…don’t get me started) but that line is always SO POWERFUL.
Honestly, if I was directing, with my love of the “eyes of Elsinore are watching” interpretation, hamlet in this scene would be loudly yelling his misogynistic threats so that Polonius & Claudius can hear, but then switching from them into a soft voice that they cannot hear, trying to tell Ophelia – “leave! We’re in danger here, this is a poisonous place. They’re watching. Get thee to a nunnery!” and then returning again. The two “views” of hamlet’s insanity almost.
It brings a whole new dynamic to the scene and element of hamlet’s character…makes both of the characters more human and highlights the perilous position they’re both in – pawns in a game that is trying to manipulate them towards the players’ own ends.
This interaction is one of the MANY reasons why I love this (Asta Nielsen’s) version of Hamlet.
So yes, that is Hamlet (left) and Horatio (right), and in this version, Hamlet is secretly a woman who was raised as a man to protect the royal family’s legacy.
The movie, in a vain and desperate attempt to avoid any implications of homosexuality, goes w the idea that Hamlet was secretly in love w Horatio (which…yea), and only pretended to love Ophelia for the sake of appearances.
And that would be all well and heterosexual, but Nielsen’s performance isn’t really that of woman pretending to be a man.
Honestly, this Hamlet feels way more gender fluid than *just* male, or *just* female. There’s flashes of both femininity and masculinity in the performance, making the whole thing waaaaay unintentionally gayer (always fun).
So, in this version, we actually get to SEE Hamlet and Horatio meet at Wittenberg.
Like, they get this whole little meet-cute scene where Horatio drops his quill and they both go to pick it up and their heads bump together, like in a romcom (I swear I’m not making this up, you can watch it on YouTube if you don’t believe me), which then leads to the part your seeing above this, where Hamlet basically just eye fucks Horatio for an entire scene.
What a piece of work is man, indeed.
Act V, Scene I
Hamlet: Why is it so hard for some people to stop being assholes?
Horatio: I don’t know, you tell me.
Hamlet: That’s the thing– no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop acting this way. I know how self absorbed I am. I know I can be cynical, jealous, hateful, even abusive at times. I know that I’m privileged to get away with half the things I do. Self awareness is not something I lack.
Horatio: Then what do you lack? Advancement?
Hamlet: Self control. I lack self control.
Lestat has saved my life. He doesn’t know it but I adore him. I guess i’m just a silly fangirl but I cant help but feel so grateful to him (lord knows his ego doesn’t need it) and when i meet his eyes in photographs it’s as if he knows. I wish I could speak to him and thank him. But he’d ignore me if i ever got the chance, i’m a nobody.
♛ Dear anonyme,
You are absolutely not a ‘nobody.’ Haven’t you noticed how I address my readers at almost every opportunity? “So until we meet again, I am thinking of you always; I love you; I wish you were here… in my arms.” My actual published words. I adore you. Silly fangirls, serious fangirls, silly fanboys, serious fanboys, agenderfans, even the ruthless critics, all!
These “Vampire Chronicles” are my life, laid out as honestly as possible for you. Perhaps in my search for goodness, I’ve already found it in sharing my stories. With you.
Do me a small favor, Anon: please give yourself some of the love you give to me. For the courage it took to write your message, and too many other reasons to list here, you deserve it.
I’ve explained this to another person like you… I’m an actor, as you know already, but beneath the performance must lie real substance, real experience, in order to engage with you, the audience. What good is the best performance from one of the greatest actors (ME) if there is no audience? You’re needed, every last one of you. Actors feed off their audience’s reaction, though the lines may be the same, it’s never the same show twice. Even when you read my books a second, third, fourth time around, you bring different life experiences of your own, and though the plot points are the same, your reaction to it is not.
What are my books but stories? And what are stories? Experiences in someone’s navigation of life, “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…”
I have always wanted you to experience my journey, be my captive audience, and learn from my example, whether I was being “good” or “bad” (or somewhere in between). Perhaps you can learn to take arms against your sea of troubles the way I’ve done, or suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as I’ve suffered… more than one lifetime’s worth of both.
I know these stories have had an impact on you, on many. Have I saved lives? Like yours? I hope so. Killing evildoers is one way to save lives, writing is quite possibly another way. My autobiography had been intended for Louis, to give him everything I wouldn’t give him before that point. To save his life, if he was at all thinking he might end it. The fact that the novel touched so many lives in such a positive way made me want to share more. And more!
Imagine My Immortal but written in the style of Shakespeare.
SCENE 1. A MAGIC SCHOOL CALLED HOGWARTS IN ENGLAND
Enter ENOBY
ENOBY
For truth, that which the gods have christened me
Has many parts, like these locks, flow’n from my crown.
That hellish sound, which forms mine name, sprung from
The dusky shades of these roots, so like the stone
But broken, rent, mottled; for, like the flames
That hie from Hades, the dusk is split with peals
Of cold violet, the shade of icy fangs
Met with military scarlet; coils not
But hangs; not ragged, but lustrous, set off
Like a precious jewel made more pure by the
Barren winds of silent winter deserts,
So are not these jewels of mine own self-crown
Brought forth in splendour so close to these eyes
Frozen, as glaciers, forged by an artist
Who, bereft of artisan tools, gives himself
And sculpts his godly business with that
Which the muses draw blindly from his vision.
Thus sorrow, reflected twice in these mirrors,
Casting mine eyes as icy limpid tears.Imagine Shakespeare but written in the style of My Immortal
Hi my name is Hamlet and I have long blond hair that reaches my mid-back and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like the sun god Apollo (AN: if u don’t know who he is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to him but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. My mother married my uncle after my father died. I have pale white skin. I’m also a student, and I went to a school called Wittenberg in Germany but I just graduated. I’m a prince (in case you couldn’t tell) but I wear mostly black bc I’m in mourning. I For example today I was wearing a black doublet with matching lace around it and a black tights, white undershirt and black boots. I was with my mother and Horatio. We were standing inside Elsinore. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. My uncle Claudius stared at me. I put up my middle finger at him.
I-want-my-IWTV 