Hamlet also calls to mind the negative experiences of life when he says "For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes".
The main appeals Hamlet uses are logos and pathos, the first when Hamlet discusses the exhaustiveness of daily life, the second when Hamlet discusses the pains of daily life. Ethos is not used as prevalently because this is a speech about living or dying, and no man can know which would be better because no man has experienced death. However, because Hamlet does acknowledge this fact, and how it would affect his decision "to be, or not to be", he does become more credible.
Paradox is seen through Hamlet's discussion of death as a tool for "relief", for ending all of life's struggles, when death itself is usually the thing to be avoided at all costs. Syntactical parallelism was used when listing the negative experiences of life, and served to emphasize the repetitiveness of each of these. The infinitive in "to die, to sleep" contributes to paradox because as a verb placed next to the idea of simply falling asleep, death seems like temporary actions; however, after recognizing them for the nouns they could be, death takes on a far more permanent meaning. The synecdoche in "The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to" allows the reader to link heartache and shocks-things that occur to people as a whole, not just to the flesh-to something akin to an illness, a disease that ravages the flesh and causes just as much pain. The tone used throughout the soliloquy is serious and contemplative, as Hamlet tries to decipher the decision in front of him and what path of action he should take. The diction is casual because Hamlet is talking to himself, literally debating in his own head what course he should choose. The two main metaphors used are the comparison of death to sleep and the comparison of life to a battle.
Life on earth is compared to a battle, "The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles". The afterlife is compared to a faraway land, "The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will". Death is compared to "sleep". Humans are referenced to as lifeless bodies, as Hamlet says "That flesh is heir to.
Hamlet makes the three following points about life vs. death: death would be a relief to the struggles of life, what comes after death may very well be worse than life, and death is what turns all men to cowards. Hamlet ponders what comes after death and what the purpose of humans on Earth is. Hamlet begins to understand that it is death that makes humans fearful and slow to action, that death must not be so great if humans struggle so long through life to avoid it, and that death is like a deep sleep that could bring pleasant dreams or horrific nightmares even worse than those one lived through.
2. There is no non-diegetic sound, and the only diegetic sound is Hamlet's voice as he speaks to himself in a large empty room, staring at a mirror. The lighting is natural. The camera is over the shoulder so that we can't see Hamlet's actual face, just his reflection in the mirror. Hamlet is wearing all black and holds up a sword by the end of the soliloquy, even though he's most seriously contemplating death at the beginning of his thoughts. The use of the mirror allows the viewer to compare both sides of Hamlet's thinking, comparing life and death through the use of "both Hamlets", and Hamlet is staring directly at himself as though he's trying to persuade his own thoughts to one way.
The music is the only non-diegetic sound and it is frantic, desperate, as though the film is running out of time, which is matched by the camera moving around and around the curving staircase. Finally, the camera pans to the back of Hamlet's head and moves into his head, so that we are literally inside his thoughts as he stares down the cliff contemplating whether life or death is the option he should choose. The lighting is incredibly dark, possibly contributed to with the black and white nature of the film. Hamlet also pulls out a knife in this soliloquy, but he does so earlier in his thoughts, when he's most seriously contemplating the idea of death. The music fades in and out depending on how seriously Hamlet seems to be considering the idea, and as Hamlet begins to understand that death may not be the best solution, the music drops out.
There is no non-diegetic sound, only Hamlet's voice echoing across the mausoleum. The setting of the mausoleum emphasizes the urgent nature of Hamlet's question as he views the possible future he's considering for himself in the bodies around him. The lighting inside is very dark and the only light is coming through a window far outside, as though Hamlet is distant from the life and light that lies above him and is instead focused solely on the idea of death. The camera follows Hamlet around as he paces, sits and stands all across the mausoleum as though he can't make up his mind, emphasized through his jittery actions and his inability to stay still. The camera focuses in on his face when he says something especially important to the message Shakespeare was trying to send about life and death.
The diegetic sound of the music in the background is very haunting and foreboding, as though Hamlet may take action to harm himself, just as the action movie signs surrounding him are almost bidding him to take action as well. The lighting is natural but Hamlet himself is wearing all black, as though he's separated from the lit-up world around him and surrounded by his own dark thoughts. He's pacing all across the video store alone, contemplating what he should do and whether it is life or death he should choose. The camera is focused on Hamlet's face as he speaks to himself, so we feel as though he's speaking to us even as he distantly stares around the video store.
I believe the best interpretation of this script was Kenneth Branagh's. Placing the camera over the shoulder as he spoke to himself in the mirror put us in his thoughts in a way none of the other sequences did, and as he drew his sword by the end of the soliloquy, it almost seemed as though he'd made his choice to not choose death, which emphasizes the paradox of the relief of death like a sleep. The only thing I would change in regard to mise en scene was something that was portrayed well in a couple of the other scenes, in which Hamlet was cast in a dark light and the rest of the room around him was lit up. This would ostracize Hamlet from the world of life around him and isolate him within his own thoughts.
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