Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Prince Caspian as Prince Hamlet?

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Dir. Andrew Adamson. Screenplay by Andrew Adamson and Christopher Markus. Perf. Ben Barnes. Walt Disney Pictures, 2008.
In his movie review podcast, A. O. Scott mentions the Hamlet parallel in the story—a usurping uncle is attempting to do away with the rightful heir.

That makes a certain amount of sense—and it’s interesting that (spolier warning here!) Prince Caspian is more successful than Prince Hamlet, turning that element of the plot from tragedy to, if not comedy, romance!

Also, if you rearrange the letters in “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” you get “Caspian, King of Narnia.”

Interesting, that!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm teaching this book right now and am intrigued by the idea that "Hamlet Prince of Denmark" rearranged is "Caspian King of Narnia"--but how do you make that work? The number of letters is different, not to mention that the same letters aren't used.

Thanks!

kj said...

Alas, that was a not-very-successful joke! Sorry for the confusion.

kj

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