I'm not lying when I say that at the beginning I wasn't very enthused for Hamlet. The plot didn't seem that interesting, the characters didn't really flesh themselves out until the second Act, Shakespeare overall is an absolute pain to understand, and the story starts off fairly slowly compared to the likes of Romeo and Juliet. There is a lot of exposition to cover, which makes for a fairly boring first and second act. As such, I was starting to wander. My interest was waning. Hamlet just seemed like a whiny teenager who talked and talked because he had nothing better to do, Horatio just seemed like another Robin, Ophelia seemed as silly as Lydia Bennet, and Getrude is completely unawares of the amount of trouble she has caused Hamlet. Overall, this seemed like a poorly-produced soap opera and not something considered a masterpiece by no one else than "the Bard". However, things started picking up pace at around Act 3. You start seeing betrayals and spying. Hamlet is finally smarting up and showing off his intelligence. Horatio finally seems like a legitimate character and not some lowly sidekick, Claudius gets his just desserts, etc. The pacing picked up, the famous soliloquy "To be or not to be" finally arrived, Polonius died, all in all my interest in Hamlet was perked up at least two notches than what it was before. Hopefully, the pacing stays this way and hopefully we get more deaths because what isn't a good Shakespearean tragedy but with everyone dying?
One thing though, I also wonder if Hamlet was worried his attempted murder of Claudius would go something like this?
No comments:
Post a Comment