How old is Hamlet?
The Shakespeare Geek has put the question out there for all to ponder, as well as a link to a chapter on that very subject.
This is a huge topic of debate among scholars, and a big consideration for a director who is casting the play. There’s a lot of info out there, a lot of it can be found in the link above. I’ll post some of the info I’ve gathered at a later date. Many seem to settle on the idea that Hamlet is 30 years old. The gravedigger in act V in the First Folio gives us a few clues about that…
I always thought that 30 is just too old for Hamlet. It often seems to me that saying he’s that age was justification for older actors to be able to take on the role. I’m not a fan of seeing 45 year-olds playing opposite a mother their same age. It’s common on stage. Richard Burton, I think, was 39 when he played the role in the version that is on video. He just looked so old! Kenneth Branagh was 36 in his movie. Derek Jacobi in the BBC video version was 42! Mel Gibson was 34 but the beard added 10 years.
Hamlet’s in school, that should make him young-ish. I like the age range of 21, maybe a little older, quite possibly younger. If he seemed a little younger I think that’d be fine. I think the drama (and the tragedy) is heightened when an audience sees this KID going through all this. The bright young lad who would be king.
So is Hamlet older than he seems, or is it such a great role that one would rather cast an older, “better” actor. Naturally with age comes maturity, experience, wisdom, and more skill to an actor. Hamlet is such a huge role (in every aspect) perhaps some think the requirements of the role are too great to burden a younger actor.
With the different sources of Shakespeare’s texts telling us different things it’s impossible to know for sure. His age may have been changed somewhere along in the writing and revising process. Something important when the play is being staged… does it work? Will I believe this old man is the son of this woman? A lot of theatre is about suspending disbelief, but even that has limits sometimes. Look through Hamlet again. How old does he seem to you? There doesn’t seem to be a right answer here. I had an acting teacher who said he was about 34. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that he was about 34 and really wanted to play Hamlet. I still think Hamlet’s much younger than that… around twenty. But don’t take my word for it!
Posted on March 31, 2008
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Annoyingly snooty Mar 31
No, W.S. has our Hamlet at 30 for a reason. He’s old enough to become King but his brother ‘pops in between the election and my hopes.’ There has to be a rivalry, and Hamlet has to have the chops.
Just practically speaking, actors need the life experience to do him full justice. They SHOULD be nearly 40 if they can look around 30.
someone Apr 1
I think he is 21-26ish. As you pointed out, he is a scholar and had just come home from school. His melancholy and indecisive manner points out that he still has the mind of a teenage boy who dwells and dwells on issues rather than taking action.
He is also at the ripe age of marriage.. In my opinion, 40 is way too old to be the right age for a prince to get married.
Kenneth B. and Mel Gibson were too old to play Hamlet.. but, yea.. cinema has a way of making things.. somewhat skewed.
A.K.Farrar Apr 1
Annoyingly Snooty - it’s his uncle, not brother! I mean, there’s ‘incest’ and there’s “incest!”
Someone - the play says 30, not 40 - and it is quite a reasonable age for someone in Elizabethan England to get married. Also - he is ’studying’ - it doesn’t say he is an undergraduate (I am way over Hamlet’s age - and still ’study’).
Both Gibson and Brannagh were the right age to play the part - under-age Hamlets tend to flop (something to do with a need for life experience as well as acting ability).
I think the biggest problem with the age issue is the refusal to accept Shakespeare set the age - which he doesn’t do with many other roles. (He gives us Juliet,not Romeo, for example.)
He must have had a very good reason for doing this.
Challenging his ‘giving of the age’ suggests a degree of ’superior knowledge’ (”I know better than Shakespeare.” - suggesting you are greater than the original).
Gedaly Apr 1
No one knows better than Shakespeare, but when different editions of the play (Folio, Quartos) tell us different ages… which is correct? Normally the Folio is my first place to look, but Hamlet is several hundred lines shorter than the “full text” we see in modern editions. The play is often a jumble of different Folios and quartos. And there are clues for different ages in each of them. This confusion among scholars can be a convenience to directors of the play who can choose for themselves how old they want to cast the part.
Sure he’s studying, but he’s studying at a school. A university. And it seems like he’s been there for a while - probably a full time student. It wasn’t common in Shakespeare’s time (as far as I know) for people to still be in unvirsity at age 30. Even for Royalty. Feel free to prove me wrong, but it just doesn’t make much sense to me.
A.K.Farrar Apr 2
Wasn’t common for Royalty to be at University at all! That’s part of Hamlets ‘oddity’. And out of the country!
“At school” - doesn’t say that in the text. Says studies - and have you ever been in a university during the summer - not a spotty undergrad in sight.
And again - Dr Faustus.
Folio is as good a place as any to start - although on stage is better still.
Directors know better than to take ANY notice of academics - especially on the topic of Hamlet.
Conrad Cook Apr 2
We get 30 years old because of Hamlet’s conversation with the gravedigger and also because of the conversation between the Player King and Player Queen at the beginning of the _Mousetrap_. If you look at the example of Hal and Falstaff, it seems Hamlet was a good crown prince in that he was making something of himself while in line to inherit the crown.
Conrad.
Gedaly Apr 2
What about all the references to Hamlet being “young” (and not all uses of this word are as disambiguation between him and his father) or his “youth”? Was 30 years old considered young back then? Isn’t that middle-aged or more for that era?
The player King’s speech is tells us that the couple has been MARRIED for 30 years. Who knows when they had a kid after that? And maybe this part of the speech isn’t meant to exactly represent King Hamlet and Gertrude. Remember that not everything in The Murder of Gonzago parallels The murder of King Hamlet.
Jennayy Oct 28
i think hes 30 [=