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Sophia Beck
Dr. Kelly
ENGL 441
11 December 2018
Hamlet Production Reflection

My group chose Act 3 Scene 4 of Hamlet, mainly because it is an action scene that is a

pivotal point in the plot, and develops many of the most important themes in the play as a whole.

I brought up the idea that the scene is a really good example of the theme of spying in the play,

while also showing the extent of Hamlet’s revenge-obsessed mind at this point in the play. We

used the projector screen as the “curtain” for the scene, to help show the audience the extent of

the spying. When the ghost came on and Hamlet started talking to it and about it, we had

Emonnie (as queen) “look through” me, as if I was not there to demonstrate the idea that Hamlet

was the only character on stage that could see it and to emphasize his madness. My other group

members also contributed the ideas of character development between the relationship of Hamlet

and his mother, and how the ghost takes on somewhat of a foil character to Hamlet. After

watching a film adaptation, Emonnie noticed that the ghost and Claudius are very similar, so we

decided to cast the same person (me) to play both. I also decided to wear a costume that could

work as a smock for the ghost and a cape of Claudius, to help emphasize their similarity in

character. We made this decision to show the interchangeability of both characters. We wanted

to do a Kahoot, because we noticed that a lot of the groups were simply presenting to the class

rather than fostering conversation, so we wanted to challenge ourselves to get more of a

discussion going. We thought the Kahoot would be a good idea, because then it puts the

participation of the audience front and foremost, and gets everyone excited about participating.

One of the things that I thought was interesting during the discussion, was when we were

talking about Hamlet’s madness. It was you who posed a question along the lines of: Is Hamlet
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actually crazy or just dramatic? Previously, I had read the play as showing the progression of

Hamlet’s madness as the events unfold, but when this idea was posed, it made a lot of sense. It

was not like he was the only one who saw the ghost (the guards saw it too), so this means it

cannot be just a figment of his imagination. His “madness” may be just a grieving teenage boy

who has been spoiled his whole life and does not know how to process his anger in a healthy

way. I think playing both the ghost and Claudius really solidifies this fact that the ghost is not

just a figment of imagination, but rather a portrayal of grief and guilt. Besides our scene being

connected to the theme of madness in the play, one of the other ways it connects is through its

portrayal of patriarchal power. In class, we discussed briefly how the authority that Hamlet has

over his mother is similar to the authority that he has over Ophelia. He really has a way of

tearing them down with words, even though he has no real tangible power to hold over them

other than the fact that he is a man. The family dynamic that is presented in our scene, through

the way Hamlet speaks to his mother, and the fact that he killed Polonius thinking it was his step-

father, shows that Hamlet does not know his place in the world. This type of dynamic extends

outward to his other relationships as well, such as his manipulation of Ophelia, Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern, and even the guards when he swears them under oath to secrecy in the first act. If it

does not go his way, the opposing party is in for a miserable time.

Unfortunately, I have to say that working with this group was really stressful. I do not

feel like we meshed well as a group, because it seemed like I have a very different approach to

doing school assignments, and I felt like they didn’t take this assignment as seriously as I did

until the very last minute (excluding Liz, she was great). As far as my role in the process goes, I

was definitely the group leader. I was the one who started the group chat, picked out the scene,

organized every meeting, booked the library rooms to practice performing and kept everyone on
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task during meetings. I even initially volunteered to take the role as Hamlet, but Alejandro said

he was up for the challenge. I believe he tried his best, with the time he gave himself to

memorize his lines, and we all tried our best to support him throughout the process. The only

thing I did not do was the Kahoot, which was courtesy of Emonnie, and create a google doc,

which was Liz’s contribution. The main challenge for me was to get everyone to do their part in

the group—there is only so many times you can remind someone to start memorizing their lines.

In addition to this, the last 3 times we met as a group, I tried to get everyone to actually act it out,

so we could start to put muscle movement to words, but because no one knew their lines, this

was challenging, and we could not act it out fully. This part was frustrating, because it affected

me during the actual performance. They skipped over my first lines as the Ghost because they

didn’t pause for me to speak, so even though I was prepared, I ended up looking like I didn’t

know when to say my lines. Through this experience, I did learn how to use Kahoot, because I

have never used it before. I also found it an interesting and new experience to lead a class in

discussion. I am happy that I was able to keep everyone engaged! Overall, I enjoyed performing

my part and the process that went with that; I have always had a little bit of theater spunk in me,

so it was nice to have an outlet for that.