The document discusses different interpretations of hiding and the hidden in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It analyzes how hiding is portrayed in various film adaptations of the closet scene, where Hamlet confronts his mother Gertrude about her marriage to his uncle Claudius. In the 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production, Gertrude's inability to see the Ghost empowers her character while seeing it robs Hamlet of his power, reshuffling the power dynamics between the two rivals and restoring some of Gertrude's power and agency. The hidden challenges simplistic interpretations and reshuffles relationships in complex ways in both the play and adaptations.

1. The Act of Hiding in William
Shakespeare’s Hamlet
How can we speak of the hidden in
Hamlet? How can we read it between
the lines or see its traces in
performance?

2. Hiding is never spoken of as a
gratuitous act done for its own sake

3. The hidden and the theatrical
“that within which passeth show” (Hamlet, I, ii, 86)

4. the expression “trappings and suits of woe”
(Hamlet, I, ii, 87) may be interpreted as
referring to trappings and suits both as
signifiers and covers

5. Space and Mind
*…+ while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I will wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain

6. • Forbidden
The seal is both a symbol
of secrecy and of authority
Memory is also presented as
“sealable”. Ophelia tells Laertes that
his advice is “lock’t” (Hamlet, I, iii, 86).
The film also erases the political in
favor of the psychological
Still, since “for psychoanalysis, speech
is always a drama which contains
something in excess”, the 1948
cinematic performance could not do
without the hidden. In the closet
scene, a game of hide and seek takes
place. Jacqueline Rose, “Sexuality in
the Reading of Shakespeare’s Hamlet
and Measure for Measure”, in John
Drakakin (ed) Alternative
Shakespeares, 2nd ed. 1985 (rpt:
London: Routledge, 2002) p.100.

7. Seen by one unseen by the other

8. Although it is widely believed that the 1948
film version of the play relies on the
psychological, the hidden – being more than
just a cinematic sleight of hand – challenges
this simplistic interpretation

9. In the closet scene, a game of hide and seek
takes place.

10. In head or heard?
We hear the Ghost but its voice seems remote though certainly coming
from outside Hamlet.

12. Is the Ghost substantial
The hidden is what Shakespeare adds
to all his appropriations (by others).
The 2008 film is probably more
theatrical than the 1948, the 1990 and
the 1996 in the rendering of the closet
scene. Indeed, in this version, the
Ghost touches the Queen (figure ). The
Ghost retains a kind of ambiguous
(non)existence. when it touches the
queen, it proves substantial. Yet, when
Gertrude passes her hand through her He touches She erazes He
hair, it seems as though it is the wind the Queen his touch disappears
(not the Ghost) that is caressing it. At
one moment, the Ghost seems present
and substantial. At another, it seems
absent and wraithlike.
The 2008 RSC production keeps us
hovering between the theatrical and
the psychological.

13. as the Ghost enters Hamlet curls up and loses
control of the scene. This evinces that the
apparition’s presence is castrating.

14. Father-Ghost-Husband
It is only when the Ghost enters that
Hamlet loses control of the scene. The
father figure here is theatrically and
sexually castrating. Indeed, from the
beginning of the scene to that moment
when the spirit appears, Hamlet
dominates the stage both theatrically and
sexually. The Queen speaks no more than
twelve lines while his speech dominates
the scene and covers the page. Film
makers add physical violence to further
emphasize this potency. The prince
(ab)uses the body of Gertrude hurling her
to the bed, pulling her and even
threatening her with daggers (1948 film
version). The presence of the bed as well
as the way Gertrude touches her son reek
with the erotic. The conversation itself
revolves around her sexuality. In the two
films, Hamlet dominates his mother
sexually – even in the sense of incestuous
eroticism. As the apparition enters, this
potency dwindles. The presence of
Ghost-father-husband is castrating.

15. Impotent Ghost

16. Failed Masculinity
Still, this Ghost is also impotent. Still, this Ghost is also
impotent. Indeed, since
Indeed, since Gertrude does not see it, Gertrude does not see it, it has
no influence on her. In the
2008 RSC production, when
it has no influence on her. In the 2008 The closet scene is presented
in a manner that shows that it
the Ghost strokes her hair, she
behaves as if it were the air
that moves through it. The
RSC production, when the Ghost is Gertrude who chooses not
to see the apparition. Erasing
the trace of his stroke (with
“potency” or female power of
the Queen is underscored.
strokes her hair, she behaves as if it her hand), she seems to
choose Hamlet over him.
were the air that moves through it.
The “potency” or female power of the
Queen is underscored. Hamlet and the Ghost desire
to play the same role
The jealous Ghost enters to reclaim his power over the
sexuality of Gertrude who (unwittingly) refuses it. He
disinvests his son, but fails to assert his own power.

17. In the 2008 RSC production, her inability to see
the Ghost empowers Gertrude while seeing it
robs the prince of his power. The hidden
reshuffles the cards in the power play of the
closet scene restoring to Gertrude her power
and the ambiguity of her position in relation to
the two rivals, Hamlet and Claudius.

18. A(-)political Hamlet
Despite the centrality of the theme of power to all the productions of the play, the 1948 film
tries to overlook the political. Indeed, it omits all reference to young Fortinbras and to
Laertes’ rebellion. Nevertheless, since it seems to have been unable to do without the last
scene, the portrayal of Horatio throughout the film prepares him to speak the lines of
Fortinbras.

20. In terms of spacing, the scholar seems to
occupy much of the space on the screen. His
presence is not only visible but inevitably too
stately

21. The Weakness and vulnerability of the Danish court in act IV scene v is totally effaced. The omission of the “save yourself, my lord”
(Hamlet, IV, v, 101) speech serves to strip Laertes’s entry of its political importance. The words of Claudius and his stature (figure 13)
do not betray any apprehension. Twenty three lines are cut out from this scene. All those lines are pervaded with the political. They
show the weakness of the Danish King who deserted is compelled to use his tongue to save himself and his throne. What remains is
the Oedipal:
That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard;
Cries cuckold to my father; brands the harlot
Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow
Of my true mother
(Hamlet, IV, v, 115-118)
Like Hamlet, Laertes seems to enjoy (and loathe) the fantasy. Thinking and talking about his mother as a whore and his father as a
cuckold both relieve and intensify his unconscious desire for his mother. From a strictly psychoanalytical perspective, it is both a sweet
and a bitter fantasy. To think of one’s father as a cuckold and of one’s mother as accessible to other males is both empowering and
disempowering.

22. On the one hand, it gives pretext to the son to
– sadistically – punish and restrain his mother’s
sexuality. On the other hand, it threatens his
claim to the throne (his father’s place).
Laertes’s rebellion (like Hamlet’s) is fueled and
supported by an oedipal denial. The fear of
bastardy is both Oedipal and political.

23. the portrayal of Horatio in Olivier’s film shows that any
attempt to cut down scenes and to omit reference to
characters is quite perilous
The hidden distrust that dominates the relationship
between the two scholars makes the role of Horatio fluid
and open to different readings.

24. END OF
THE
SHOW