Is Spider-Man 2 a Derivative Version of Hamlet?
The short answer is, I think, "No." But an alert student requested repeatedly that I consider it.
Having a little time on my hands, I watched the film. Having not too much time on my hands, I watched it at twice to thrice the speed with the subtitles on.
I may thus have missed some subtleties.
I know I miss other things because I know just enough to make sure the hyphen is in the right place but not enough to know the details of any particular manifestation of the stories.
Watching this one, I got the feeling that the student might be on to something—though it wasn't Hamlet. It was Merchant of Venice. Here's Peter Parker's paraphrase of Shylock's famous speech:
Well, sort of.
A bit later, things become a bit more Hamlet-y. Harry Osborn believes that Spider-Man killed his father (who was the Green Goblin). Indeed, he says as much—like either Hamlet could have said to Claudius or Laertes could have said to Hamlet:
Then, paraphrasing (?) Hamlet's "more things in heaven and earth" line to Horatio. Peter Parker says this:
Without being primed with the idea that something akin to Hamlet is happening, I'm not sure I would have noticed any of that.
But then we get a scene close to the end of the film.
A father's ghost appears to a son and calls that son to revenge:
All right. That doesn't make the film a derivative of Hamlet or Harry a Hamlet analogue, but it is something, and I enjoyed it. It remains to be seen whether I'll be able to work that in to any further Shakespeare and film classes, but I'm not shouting "No!" at the idea.
Links: The Film at IMDB.
Click below to purchase the film from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).
Bonus Images: The Ghost's Demands:
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