Obsession In Hamlet

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In Hamlet, Shakespeare conveys his point that obsession will not yield the desired result. Gibson and Zeffirelli successfully portray the same idea even though they leave some aspects of the play out of the movie. The first major scene regarding an obsession in the play is Act I, Scene 4 in which Hamlet meets his father’s ghost. In both the written play and the movie versions, Hamlet becomes obsessed with getting to speak with his father, threatening to kill his friends if they got in his way, saying, “I’ll make a ghost of him that lets[hinders] me!” (Act I, Scene 4, Line 85). The movie does a slightly better job at displaying Hamlet’s obsession because it leaves out the part where Hamlet refuses to follow the ghost any further (“I’ll go no further.”) (Act I, Scene 5, Line 1). Instead of portraying a Hamlet that will eventually give up, it portrays a Hamlet that would follow his father to the ends of the earth. This obsession with following his father leads to his obsession with avenging his death. In the written play, Hamlet proclaims, “thy commandment alone shall live within...my brain,” (Act I, Scene 5, Lines 102-103). This marks the …show more content…
Instead of lifting up the curtain to first check who is behind it, Hamlet, overcome by his obsession, jumps to the conclusion that it is the King behind the curtain and stabs Polonius (Act III, Scene 4). This scene is accurately portrayed in the movie through Hamlet’s actions. He doesn’t hesitate to stab whoever is behind the curtain. This is the first death caused by an obsession. When Laertes hears of his father’s death, he vows to seek revenge and kill whoever was the murderer. While this scene comes out of sequence in the movie, Laertes still says he would “cut his throat i’ th’ church” (Act 4, Scene 7, Line 127) and the desired effect (the portrayal of Laertes’ obsession and the foreshadowing of the deaths to come) is still

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