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Hamlet's only friend in the lengthy play, his schoolchum [[Horatio]], is the only major character who doesn't die. When Hamlet feigns mental illness to cover his unusual activities, he confides to Horatio, "I am only mad north by northwest" and "There's a method to my madness".  

Hamlet's only friend in the lengthy play, his schoolchum [[Horatio]], is the only major character who doesn't die. When Hamlet feigns mental illness to cover his unusual activities, he confides to Horatio, "I am only mad north by northwest" and "There's a method to my madness".  

Major film versions of the play have starred [[Laurence Olivier]], [[Mel Gibson]], [[Kenneth Branagh]] and [[Ethan Hawke]].

Major film versions of the play have starred [[Laurence Olivier]], [[Mel Gibson]], [[Kenneth Branagh]] and [[Ethan Hawke]]. For years, Olivier's performance was considered an inapproachable ideal. The Gibson version used modernized English and portrayed a grittier, tougher Hamlet. The Branagh version clocks in at 4 hours because it includes every line in the play. The Ethan Hawke version is set in Manhattan with Denmark as a corporation and Julia Stiles as a girl friend driven to suicide by Hamlet's antics. 

[[category:literature]]

[[category:literature]]