Expectations Vs. Reality?

As I was watching the director’s interpretation of what he thought he had portrayed in his scene, I expected there to be more emotion and reaction in the characters. Personally, I thought that both actors playing Hamlet and the Ghost of Hamlet’s father looked like they were staring wide eyed with shock, but expressionless and never changed throughout the entire scene. The Ghost of Hamlet’s father was just telling the story of his death like it was, but seemed to be talking through his son with no sense of recognition; while Hamlet simply stared at his father, paralyzed by fear.

Throughout the entire scene all we hear is the Ghost of Hamlet’s fathers voice, which took away from the scene because I was constantly reminded of Lord Voldemort’s voice right before he was resurrected in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In both the scene and the movie, I thought that the voice was supposed to show weakness and illustrate how close the characters were to death. But, when I read Act 1 Scene 5, I didn’t expect the ghost to sound any different than the way he had his entire life. The ghost’s narration of the scene also took away from the pain in his death. Shakespeare gives us all of these descriptive details of King Hamlet’s death, which weren’t fully developed on screen. This scene would better delivered the pain of dying better if we could actually hear him scream.

I would have been more empathetic towards the actors if they had shown more hard-hitting emotions through their facial expressions or flocculation in their voices. I expected Hamlet to see Hamlet’s wheels turning as he figures out the man who murdered his father was his uncle, and then grow more and more angry as he realizes the nature of his relationship with his mother. I also expected to really see the Ghost of Hamlet’s father break down as he reminisces over the love he and his wife had, and then see his wife in a lustful, incestuous, and adulterous relationship with his brother break his heart.