30 representative people of Italy

What kind of hero is Hamlet?

To be or not to be, that's the question.

Anytime such words resound in mind, we all know what they are about. Hamlet. Shakespeare. 9 words, 40 letters containing the identikit of an unforgettable work. As we read these words with different inflections, we make the difference, because these words won't finish telling what they have to say. So Shakespeare, through the voice of Hamlet, speaks to us about the beauty of death, about the setting-free from the whips and scorns of time, in his well-known soliloquy. Young lips whisper words speaking of death and make them lie forever in our minds. Hamlet is like our adolescence mirror, <<my mirror staring back at me>>, he's a young man we can identify with, the uncomfortable and bored one we all have been. He is the perfect description of all of us: virgin islands still not contaminated from adult world pollution, grown-up pets confused because of odd apathy and scared of the necessary passage to adulthood. An incomprehensible world, hard to understand, made of few words, is the one Hamlet is living in.

Right after King Hamlet dies, the world of Hamlet gets bigger: King Hamlet is still alive in his son's heart but he's become a cold ghost, who needs to be revenged to have peace; Gertrude becomes the worst person for Hamlet, she's an unsatisfied sex animal. A shameful mother who revolts her own son. She takes part to the assassination of King Hamlet, and does destroy the faith of his son towards everyone.

More or less we all share the disappointed and Hamletic adolescence. Just like Hamlet we youngsters are sad and angry, we students read a lot, we despise the world, we are not self-confident. We fall under the arrows of the lack of self-confidence and we believe we are safe in our universal diffidence. Hamlet, who's aware of not being able to trust even one of the closest people, pushes the others with sharp words, sore invectives - he keeps thinking – he only trusts Horatio – yes, he's different -, Horatio would never betray him. Hamlet keeps thinking alone, and in order to discover the truth, he will act, he will not to be. Although he's sure of his plan Hamlet needs more, more time. So Shakespeare demonstrates that if you think too much you become unable to act.

There's a space for operation between thoughts and acting, a hiatus of time, in which we need more time. Hamlet is not ready, he doesn't have the strength to act. Hamlet is a young depressed man, he is the opposite of a classical hero. So that's why I define him as the most modern hero in the classical theater.

Can you shortly compare Juliet, Ophelia, Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, Portia?

Shakespearean female characters bond tightly with the male characters, conditioning them a lot. They are spread on all male areas and they cause different effects. Let's compare the opposites, Juliet and Desdemona. Juliet's love is a puerile and sexual love, based on the mutual erotic attraction. Juliet's aim is loving Romeo and living next to Romeo forever, and if that is not possible there is no reason to live another day.

Desdemona is more or less the same age as Juliet, but her man is exactly the opposite of Romeo because he turns down every beauty standard living in the mind of a dreamer girl. Desdemona and Othello remind of Ulysses and Nausicaa: Nausicaa/Desdemona, the white and goddess girl, falls in love with the tale told (...by an idiot) by Ulysses/Othello, the mature man. Juliet is ready to die, willing to follow her man; Desdemona loves life and begs her man to let her live one more day, to let one more hour pass, <<Let me live one more hour, darling>>. Juliet wants to die, Desdemona wants to live.

Ophelia is one of the most fragile Shakespearean characters, and sadly she gets mad at the end. Ophelia becomes really mad because she receives mostly violence and she doesn't have the instruments to deal with it. She's so fragile and lives helpless between all these men who always tell her what she must do. She doesn't understand the situation, what's happening, because she's all alone and lost, she doesn't comprehend the spit of the man Ophelia is in love. Just like Desdemona, who digs her own grave with a tragic elegance and persistence, Ophelia lets her man lead to her death.

Lady Macbeth plants the seed of ambition in Macbeth and leads him to murder. She's the “manliest” female character, who acknowledges woman's inferiority and her aim to make the husband stand out. Lady Macbeth will take  control of the situation once Macbeth is not able to, once Macbeth becomes mad. Lady Macbeth herself becomes mad. The attempt to purification faces the impossibility of atonement, and Lady Macbeth embraces her death.

Portia lives in a fairy tale world Bassanio wants to live in. Her love dreams come true once Bassanio chooses the right casket, because Portia is already in love with him. She looks like the Princess in every fairy tale. Portia is not the Princess who has to be saved by the Prince, because she's the one who saves the Prince. Portia's eloquence will save Bassanio's friend, Antonio, from a mortal bond.

How does Iago poison Othello's happiness?

Desdemona, the object of desire every Venetian man is in love with, is taken. When Iago discovers that Desdemona and Othello are in love he wants to destroy Othello's happiness, not only because he liked Desdemona but also because Othello is a black ram. He speaks moving people emotionally and leads them to do what he wants. Iago is reluctant, evasive. He triggers reactions, he withdraws, he doesn't say anything. But his powerful few words make him the weaver of the play, and make everyone fall, audience included. Iago poisons Othello's happiness planting the seed of suspicion in Othello. He makes Othello doubt about Desdemona's purity, taking advantage of Othello's jealousy. Iago whispers words and just waits that Othello's happiness turns itself to anger.

Rem tene, verba sequentur.