Hamlet, C3v

This edition reimagines Hamlet by portraying Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus as modern fraternity brothers ("frat boys"). These three friends act very childish and like teens today, they also use some language that older characters would not throughout the entirety of the play. The Frat boy accent, or “Fraccent”, is used by the three young men in this scene, however, the ghost of Hamlet Senior does not use modern slang. We decided not to have the Ghost use modern language to convey the Ghost’s age and how he is Hamlet’s father, similar to when kids use modern or trendy slang today, and their older parents do not understand because they are from a different generation. 

We decided to make this interpretation and edition on Snapchat, a social media and messaging app, because it is the most common way that college-aged people communicate with each other, specifically frat boys. We also thought that if Hamlet was a Frat guy, he would want to speak to his Dad (the ghost) through Snapchat instead of in person or text messaging, as his father would’ve preferred.

We specifically titled the group chat of the three boys to show that they are most trusted by Hamlet as they are on his side and a name like that could lead to bad consequences. The image of the low battery was also intentional as Hamlet seems somewhat immature and if he was to be in the modern world, his phone would always be low on battery.

The language used in this edition was deliberately selected to make the three younger men sound as modern as they could. Certain phrases, such as "finna" and "no homo," may be controversial. "Finna" originates from African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and "no homo" can be interpreted as a homophobic rhetoric. However, these terms align with the frat boy persona, as they often use such language without concern, believing it makes them cool.

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