Cumberbatch’s previous roles and their Hamlet connections
The very clever MrsLokke has discovered some interesting parallels between Benedict’s previous roles and Hamlet and was kind enough to share her insights with us. The following texts and more from MrsLokke can be found on her Tumblr page.
Hamlet and Christopher Tietjens
“It is not, nor it cannot, come to good,
But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.”
~William Shakespeare, Hamlet~
The tragedy of Christopher Tietjens life summed up in one quote…
Hamlet and Inseparable
My hour is almost come
When I to sulphrous and tormenting flames
Must render up myself.
He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
~Shakespeare’s Hamlet~
It keeps surprising me how many links there are to be find in Hamlet and some roles Benedict has played.
Hamlet and Khan, (Star Trek into Darkness)
I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in.
~Hamlet~
Your commanders have committed a crime I cannot forgive. None of you are safe.
Have I got your attention now?
~John Harrison-Khan~
Khan is driven by revenge, revenge on the misdoings to him and his family.
His power, intelligence and ambition make him able to revenge the man who used him to gain power and start a war.
Hamlet revenges the death of his father by plotting and killing his uncle, who by killing Hamlets father claims the throne and will marry his mother.
Both men are out to revenge the men who killed or hurt their loved ones..They are willing to do anything to make things right that have been done wrong..
Plotting their revenges leaves Hamlet insane (or acting that way) and Khan portraying himself as being a lesser opponent to Star Fleet by letting himself taken prisoner.
Both men may have had alternate motives for revenging their family. This motive could be that both of them are trying to gain power.
Hamlet is to become the King but can only become that without him being brandished as the murderer of his uncle. Khan wants to gain back the power to the ship he designed and take his family back home..
Is there anything you would not do for your family?
Revenge should have no bounds.
Hamlet and Parades End…
But to my mind, — though I am native here
And to the manner born, — it is a custom
More honour’d in the breach than the observance.
~Hamlet, scene iv~
The intensity of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and that of Ford Madox Ford show some similarities. Both talk of family honor and being “cast” out by those closest to you. This all because of their ideas of the world around them is different than that of those closest to them. Hamlet acts out in “faking” being crazy just to find out who did murder his father. And by acting like this he risks a total cast out by his friends and family. Christopher Tietjens has his morals and his values in which he tries to find his answers in a rapidly changing world..
Christopher is seen as a dinosaur with his views and morals in a time where people are changing their views in a vastly changing world. Christopher keeps his morals as a save guarding in a world which is changing so fast around him. It forces him to question everything he holds dear…
Poor Chrissie…
Hamlet and Third Star…
“And whatsomever else shall happen, give it an understanding but no tongue, I will requit your love. So, fare your well. My lord, he hath importuned me with love, in honorable fashion.”
~William Shakespeare, Hamlet~
This is such a touching quote from Hamlet…
He says goodbye. He says try to understand it and please don’t dismiss my decision..
Just like James did in Third Star…
And his friends although this decision is almost unbearable for them, decide to help James as a last token of love and respect for this enormous choice..
Hamlet and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
~Shakespeare’s Hamlet~
Peter Guillam’s faith in George Smiley is never shaken when he stands by him during his quest to uncover the truth. Even when the circumstances are so difficult and even touch his private life he keeps faithful to him…
You could even call this love…
Hamlet and Assange…
“The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!”
~Shakespeare’s Hamlet~
“If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature”
~Julian Assange~
Searching for the truth is what Hamlet does.. He searches for the murderer of his father. Julian Assange searches for the truth in uncovering information and leaking this to the world. Despite what the world thinks of that.
Both men determent to find out the truth no matter what consequences lay before them.
The whole Wiki Leaks affaire is a complicated case, one I won’t go in to on here…
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