"Let Be"

If we recall Hamlet's mood earlier in the play we see that they were not very stable. During the wedding ceremony or presentation of the royal couple he was pesimistically gloomy. He was behaving as a child who was being forced to sit down and drink his morning tea when all he wanted to do was to play outside in the garden or be anywhere else. Afterwards when he was left alone he was sulking at the lost of his father but then he was angry at the fact that he felt the love his mother felt for her deceased husband was false. he says "frailty, thy name is woman". The next moment he was punning with his friend who came to pay him a visit and after recieving news of his fathers ghost he went into desperation. Once he has heard from the ghost what i feel he wanted somebody, anybody, to confirm (that his uncle planned to kill his father) then he was sort of like a man on a mission.
i feel Hamlet has always known what he wanted to do to his uncle but he just needed a little push. sort of like a child who's training wheels have just been taken off. "To be or not to be" i would consider as that pep talk a person gives themselves before they make a major commitment. (like when a man is about to propose and isn't really sure he wants to give up his bachelorhood but is sure that he doesn't want to loose his love but still wants to wait until the final moment to "hang himself" as they say, because something, anything opened his eyes to show him that this is the best thing to do) Well that is exactly what happened to Hamlet, i feel.
He knew that there was someting about his unlce that did not sit right and when the ghost told him he was the murderer, what did Hamlet say? "OH my prophetic soul!". He was just waiting for someone else to say something vile about the man. Then he wasn't sure as to whether or not he could carry out the task of murdering his uncle and he said the famous lines "To be or not to be". He was doubting himself but that did not stop him from his determination because he still sought ways to prove his uncles guilt. Hence the play he had the actor act for the royal household. He wanted to see his unlce reaction, more obvious he could not be. Then his final resolve came when he concluded that men were nothing more then dust. It did not matter if you were a king or a commoner, educated or not, once dead we are all the same.
Its good that he comes to this conclusion because in a way i feel that his mind found some sort of peace. In my rational he reasoning was that once he killed his uncle, this man was going to become worm food the same way he would be one day aswell. I dont think he was viewing death as a question of having to then go to heaven or hell, because if we recall he once stopped from killing the king because he was praying and he did not want his soul to go to heaven and with Guildenstern and Rosencrantz he didnt want the king of England to give them anytime to pray for forgiveness of their sins, i think he started to view death as what it was, a natural course in life which all men, sinners and saints, must undergo.

To Be or Not to Be an Agent of God?

Hamlet believed that his actions were all to be viewed as righteous for he was an "agent of God". He feels that in order to avenge his father's murder, to hell with those that get hurt in the process. He felt no remorse for killing Polonius, granted we dont really know whether or not he liked the man, but if you claim to love the man's daughter then surely you should feel something, no? So the question that remains is do we believe this to be true? To be or not be an agent of god?
Comparing Othello to Hamlet there are similarities and differences. Both Othello and Hamlet feel that they are murdering to bring about justice for a wrong commited. i dont recall however, that Othello ever considered himself and intrument of god. His reason for murdering Desdemona was because she was unfaithful and because he wanted to "save other men" from her decieving ways. Hamlet on the other hand was looking to avenge his father so that his soul may rest in peace but to me it seemed as though he simply did not like the fact that his mother choose to remarry to his uncle.
Polonius said that there was "a method" to Hamlet's maddness. Though some people could argue that he went crazy i think that to a certain extent this is true but yet to another no, he was as perfectly comprehensive. Both he and Othello sought ways to have their sinners confess or reveal their guilt. But there was no method to Othello's way of seeking the truth from his wife, he was simply a puppet in the hands of Iago the puppeteer. Hamlet on the hand is the both the puppet and the puppeteer. He recieves orders from the ghost but all of his means to get to this end were all his doing, not someone ordering him about as was the case of Othello.
At last, both Othello and Hamlet choose to murder because the loved. Yet, unlike Hamlet Othello never had any intention of hurting those around him, only the people who he thought to have hurt him, which in this case was Desdemona and Cassio. Hamlet, by "feigning" to be mad hurt the woman whom loved him, two of his good friends and an inocent man, Polonius, and he did all this without any remorse.
So, was he or was he not an agent of god? In my honest opinion he's just a sad murderer.

HAMLET!

Out of the first act with Kenneth Branagh the emotions i recieved from him were that of first depression, to a sad resignation followed quickly by anger mixed with disgust. i admit to being bias and like his performance but i wont say that it was my favorite.

Kevin Kline i felt had no emotion. im my opinion it was monotonous. to be frank i didn't feel much for his perfomance. it seemed too rehearsed for my liking.

With the 3rd act performed by Nicol Williamson i got the feeling of grief. he seemed to really be feeling sorrowful and did a good job at conveying so. his eyes, their direct gaze as a deer caught in a headlight simply awaiting his fatal destination, i thought it was great. Also the lazy manner in which he carried himself across the stage as though he had no strength, brilliant, but not my favorite.

Mel Gibson appeared to me to be heartbroken. He sounded pained and the way he looked down onto his mother from the window, like a child who's favorite toy was taken away. It was good.

Irronically enough, my favorite was the one i didnt not understand much of. The fifth act by Fujiwara Tatsuya was to me the best. Yes the cage was very much cliche, but he gave me everything. One moment he was angry, then frustrated back to angry, the depressed and painly sorrowed. I think Hamlet must have been feeling every emotion known to man when he was going reciting these words and to me Fujiwara expressed them all perfectly, if a bit exaggerated at times, but still great!