#lenalyses

I want a Horatio who occasionally loses the ability to be that rock for Hamlet, who sounds panicked as he tries to keep him from following his father's ghost and whose voice cracks as he tries to keep him from agreeing to the duel with Laertes.

I want a Horatio who becomes a crying, screaming mess when Hamlet dies, who delivers his final lines with the voice of a man who has nothing left to live for and has to be physically dragged away from his body.

Because what do you mean, Hamlet repeats ‘what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio’ because he can’t quite believe that anyone cared enough about him to come all the way to the Danish court for him.

In researching 3:2 (in particular, the post-Mousetrap section with Hamlet and Horatio), I went down a rabbit hole on Hamlet's naming of Horatio as "Damon dear".

Essentially, the story of Damon and Pythias is one of the Pythagorean ideal of "male friendship". Pythias (Hamlet) is sentenced to death for plotting against the tyrant (potentially Claudius) and is sentenced to death. He asked the tyrant if he can go home to get his affairs in order, and he agrees with the caveat that Damon (Horatio) has to stay, and if Pythias doesn't return in a set time frame, Damon will be executed in his place.

Time and the deadline passes, and the tyrant is ready to execute Damon when Pythias returns and explains the cause of his delay: his boat was captured by pirates. The tyrant is so touched by Pythias's devotion to his friend that he allows both to go free.

The way I see it, this is not only Shakespeare's way of sneaking yet another classical allusion into his writing, but also an indication to the audience that Horatio is truly Hamlet's only friend throughout the horrors of the play.

The former reads as Hamlet simply being scathing, prodding at a still-sceptical Horatio for his lack of belief.

So, obviously the Kenneth Branagh Hamlet is an amazing adaptation. Four hours of beautiful costumes and scenes, as well as wonderfully spoken Shakespeare.

Of course there's a few issues: I think Hamlet looks too old (personal qualm), a few choices of action grate against the general mood of the adaptation (like the weird-ass skull mask), but all in all it's fairly high up on my list.

The one BIG thing I hate about it though? Hamlet's death. Don't get me wrong, Branagh is a phenomenal actor, but the fact that Horatio juST STANDS THERE AND WATCHES HIM DIE IS SO WEIRD. Like, they're shown to be fairly close throughout the play, and Nicholas Farrell is for sure one of my favourite Horatios, but then there's just no intimacy at ALL in that final scene? It's so strange to me, and properly upset me when I watched it (istg I almost punched a wall).

Anyway rant over

Horatio: You might have rhymed