Hamlet and The Mousetrap: From Stage to Screen

Presenter

Jared C. Cooper

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Barry A. Spence, Department of Film Studies, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 2, 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board C8, Poster Showcase Room (163), Row 1 (C1-C10) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

The project focuses on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, connecting the play as a text to several of its film adaptations. In specific, Act 3, Scene 2, in which Hamlet stages a play-within-the-play, which he calls The Mousetrap. The purpose of The Mousetrap is to present the Claudius, the King of Denmark, (and Hamlet's uncle, who Hamlet presumes has killed his father and has taken his place on the throne) with a play that mirrors the circumstances of Hamlet's father's death. The scene of The Mousetrap is essential in revealing Claudius’s guilt to Hamlet. My research focuses on the ways in which this scene from Shakespeare's play is translated in its film adaptations. The Mousetrap is the crux of the tragedy and may be indicative of Shakespeare's own contemplations on the ways in which art may be experienced. Research is largely theory-based, utilizing the famous essays of Walter Benjamin and John Berger on the reproduction of art and its transformation in the "mechanical age". A mix of drama theory and film theory is used to pair with Benjamin and Berger, in order to capture what is gained and lost in Shakespeare's play when it is moved from the stage (as Shakespeare meant it) to the movie screen. In doing so, this thesis seeks to gain new insights into how the relationship of art––mainly film, theater, and literature––work in transition, and how that may unfold new conclusions about Hamlet, the most popular play in the English language.

Keywords

Theater, Film, Theory, Literature, Adaptation

Research Area

Art and Aesthetics

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