Undecided, Unpredictable, and Always a Mystery

What makes an actor a great actor? What is the cause of an emotional reaction towards a movie or play?According to This American Life (Act V-of Hamlet), the rejoinder is based on the quality and realism in the projection. In other words, only if the movie/play is justifiably convincing, or authentic will it provoke both an impact on the actor and audience. In the Missouri State Penitentiary a play of Hamlet was held by the prisoners. At first, I thought these nonprofessionals would have preformed abysmally, for they lacked experience in the theater performance  nonetheless they showed the contrary when having listened to them. It is outstanding how only by listening to people act one can actually judge their acting potential and quality. The inmates learn that the nature of drama has the potential to act as a mirror on the soul as they reflect on their crimes and begin to understand how the actor completes the meaning of the characters in Hamlet.

    Personal experience is a primary factor for portraying a specific emotion. When an actor reflects his/her feelings on stage, the words Shakespeare once wanted to come to life, do. Many of the actors in this prison were actual avengers. Principally, the actor of Hamlet was a "real-life" murderer. It is said by the director, that it came to a point where it was almost believable. Having actors who've experienced what they're acting, created a thin line between reality and fiction; it was almost indistinguishable. This is what you call professional acting. Like Agnes, the director said: "A good actor has to open himself up...." However, one can never expect the same methodology or style, for in every actors lies a distinct personality and experience.

By interpreting a character and defining its persona, actors expand the number of interpretations the audience might experience. At the beginning of the podcast, the interviewers demonstrated a worldwide outlook of Hamlet's most famous line: "To be or not to be–...." From New York, to Europe to South America, until the Missouri State Prison, it was evident: there can be other interpretations of Hamlet. The manner in which Hamlet is conveyed depends on the experiences that influence an actor's perception and thought.  However, the audience is influenced by the mood and tone in which the actor embodies the fictional character, therefore actors presume a powerful role when acting. Although the disposition of an actor is the essence to personifying and bringing to life words on paper, it is a biased way to represent a story like Hamlet's. The truth behind Hamlet will always remain undecided. 

Failure to Launch

          "Shall I, or Shall I not?" These are words that most people repeat everyday. At times we find ourselves skeptical, scruple and cowardly of the decisions we must take. Must this be a product of insecurity? Do we constantly stay in our comfort zone, afraid of failure, afraid of being judged, and most of all, afraid of letting ourselves down? Hamlet alike the character in Prufrock's poem: "The Love Song," suffer from a "failure to launch." These two men are dreamers, they plan, they prepare, but none of their schemes seem to unravel. Both revenge and love are two passionate ambitions, so powerful, so compelling, they are almost impossible to accomplish. But, these two men speak with wisdom, with pride and explicitness, unfortunately, their words are larger than their actions.

Hamlet is determined and will seek his father's revenge throughout the book. He will kill his uncle Claudius, and retain his rightful kingdom. Nonetheless, his imagination is wilder than his actual demeanor. After every attempt to kill his uncle and every plot to prove his guiltiness, Hamlet is simply stuck. Hamlet always waited for the perfect moment to attack, where he would silently press a dagger through his enemies chest, or poison him in a joyous occasion, but these moments were scarce and nearly extinct. With words like:


                   -" Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, tripping on the tongue."
                       (Act. 3. Sc. 2)

                  -"To be or not to be, that is the question–
                     Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
                     The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."

 Hamlet exposes a lack of certainty as well as the deficiency to take action. Will he kill himself? Will he ever kill Claudius? Does he love Ophelia? Does he consider himself insane or not? He constantly frustrates his readers. This prince is just a fraud.

Like Hamlet, we find ourselves feeling the exact way on Prufrock's "loving character." He is too a fantasist, one that imagines:
                       "...restless nights in one-night cheep hotels
                         And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
                         Streets that follow like a tedious argument."

                       "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each." 

         However, suddenly this character transforms into a pessimist. From inspiriting the reader with wishful thinking, (finding love in every corner,becoming obsessed with love, etc...) he comes to speak about procrastination (tea, marmalade, swimming with the mermaids) and the faults that have come to delay his plans. This man seems to have a pattern. He goes from optimistic to pessimistic all throughout the poem. At the end, he simply says: "Should I say: 'That is not what I meant at all; that is not it, at all?" Unquestionably, this brings the receptors to react with agony, which might be the same emotion of the character.

      Hamlet and this foolish old man have parallel conceptions and issues; they imagine happiness, reflect their worth (Talking about Michelangelo), speak of their obsession and invasion of thought (yellow smoke and fog), procrastinate and delay everything (tea and perfect murder) and finally hope not to regret their actions.

At the end both are attacked with irony. After so much planning, worrying and negativeness, they are:

"...lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown." 

After all the "swimming," both Hamlet and the man in love drown in their own misery and desperation. Both face the ancient Mesopotamian law: "An eye for an eye." One got killed with his own target, and the other destroyed his own love.