Film and Text comparison of Hamlet
..., the reader is able to formulate his or her own image of Ophelia. From my reading of Ophelia in the written play, I visualized a beautiful, naive Ophelia who was plotting with her father against Hamlet. In the written version her action seemed to have been out of stupidity rather than loyalty to her family. However, in the Zeffirelli version of Hamlet, Ophelia appears frail and innocent. This frail girl however, has a dilemma between alliance to her family and a bond between her and her lover. The intensity of her dilemma is visually detected in the layout of the characters in the movie. Polonius comes in directly after Laertes in the movie. In the written version of the play Laertes has an exchange of dialogue with Polonius before Polonius speaks to Ophelia. In the film, Polonius appears immediately after Laertes leaves. It appears that she has these two voices dictating her every move. This frail character has little room to lead her own life and follow her own ideas. In the film version of Hamlet, Ophelia’s despair and anguish over Hamlet denial of his love for her is visible. Although the lines on page 958 “O, woe is me, t’ have seen what I have seen, see what I see” suggest that Ophelia was upset by Hamlet’s denial, the movie allows us to see just how much of an impact Hamlet’s words had on her. Glenn Close’s facial expressions and movements allowed the viewer to witness how intense and emotionally damaging these words were to Ophelia. In the filmed she avowed to her father that Hamlet “importuned” her “with love in honorable fashion” (Shakespeare 924). When she realizes that her father was right and she has been wronged, it...