Conversely, Branagh's Hamlet lays to rest the "melancholy- image of the Prince, and restores the play with a new vitality that helps answer a question that has plagued critics of the play for years.
Critics have long wondered why Hamlet does not immediately kill Claudius for the murder of Old Hamlet. Branagh's portrayal of the Ghost explains Hamlet's delay in killing the villainous King Claudius. Hamlet worries that the devil has sent the ghost to trick Hamlet into murdering Claudius unjustly. "The spirit that I have seen May be the devil, and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, out of my weakness and melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me- (2.2, 599-604). Hamlet is young and passionate, but he is uncertain whether he has seen his father's ghost, or just an apparition sent by the devil to trick him into damning his own soul. This conundrum renders the delay obvious.
Another dilemma is presented in the "to be or not to be- soliloquy from Act 3, Scene 1, which is done in front of a mirror. The imagery presented here is quite obvious; Hamlet is peering into his own soul through the mirror, questioning the necessary existence of his own life as he threatens his reflection with the dagger. Hamlet is reacting against the pressure of keeping his manic facade and the pressure of seeing Claudius and Gertrude together every day and being unable to act. He focuses on the daily duplicity that his life has become, accentuated by the halls of mirrors. He is faced with his own indecision and inability to act.
Branagh also depicts the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia in an innovative manner. He uses inter-cut nude bedroom scenes of Hamlet and Ophelia to establish for the audience that Hamlet and Ophelia have been secretly making love, a tactic not employed by previous Hamlet directors. These flashbacks give weight to the subsequent interchanges between Hamlet and Ophelia, culminating in the "get thee to a nunnery- scene.
