above:Olivier as Hamlet in the classic cemetery scene
below left: John Barrymore as Hamlet with Hamlet's mother
below right: Richard Burton as Hamlet during the 'to be or not to be' soliloquy

Click here to visit the Hamlet anthology web site which includes a collection of images of actors who have portrayed Hamlet


       The play Hamlet is today considered Shakespeare's crowning masterpiece. It was not considered so in the playwright's day. Until the post industrial technology era Hamlet was seen as one among many great plays of the great bard of Stratford. This is not difficult to understand. Hamlet in many ways presaged the psychological complexities of the urbanized modern world. The dilemmas faced by Hamlet, the strain of constant dissimulation, the pathetic empathy for an intelligent, sensitive soul caught in the vicious vice of crazed circumstances, torn apart by indecision, and finally destroyed by the out of control events has found an enthusiastic audience in our time. All of which gives rise to a staggering body of interpretations which gives everyone, from scholars to critics to directors to actors to psychiatrists and psychologists (amateur and professional) to conversation over drinks at cocktail parties, the opportunity to analyze and interpret the play through their own partisan viewpoint.
       I am certainly not going to fall into the trap of interpreting either the play or the character of Hamlet but any and every viewpoint can be found in the 100 or so web sites devoted to this play.