Claudius's Flow Chart for the Duel in Hamlet

After his plan to have the English king execute Hamlet fails, Claudius might, if he were a businessman, make a flow chart for his new plan—to have Hamlet killed during a duel with Laertes. Here's Claudius's flowchart, with his plan in blue and unexpected events in red. Click on it for a better view.




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Accurate List of Hamlet's Soliloquies

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Though Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech is his fourth soliloquy, many websites call it his third. They're skipping the twenty-line speech that follows his interview with the Ghost, which in my view is a particularly bad mistake since Hamlet's monomaniacal vow there is at the heart of his tragedy.

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Directors usually handle Shakespearean soliloquies in three ways: (1) they have actors speak directly to the audience, as they would have on the Elizabethan stage; (2) they have actors speak to the air, as if yammering on cellphones; or (3) they use a voice-over, as if we were wire-tapping the characters' brains.
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TO BE OR NOT TO BE (3.1)


(Image from Roger Ebert's Film Festival website) Kenneth Branagh in his 1996 film.Mel Gibson (following the rest of 3.1) in Franco Zeffirelli's 1985 film.
Ethan Hawke in Michael Almereyda's 2000 film.
Derek Jacobi in a 1980 production directed by Rodney Bennett.Kevin Kline in a 1990 New York Shakespeare Festival production.Laurence Olivier from his 1948 film. (For an analysis of Olivier's performance, click here.)An actor (Alan Mowbray) recites part of the soliloquy with help from Doc Holliday (Victor Mature) in John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946).A director (Rowan Atkinson) helps Shakespeare (Hugh Laurie) spruce up the "dodgy" original soliloquy in a sketch from Comic Relief. OPHELIA'S MAD SCENE (4.5) Kate Winslett from the Branagh version: part one , part two.
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