The Mousetrap Scene

The mousetrap scene is a crucial one after Hamlet meets the ghost. He starts to ponder what he has seen and heard. Therefore, he sets up a test to detect the reaction of Claudius and to catch his conscience. In Emma Vieceli’s Hamlet, unlike regular players, the player murderer wears a mask with a weird smile that makes it difficult for the readers to speculate his real thoughts. The mask provides the link to Japanese traditional Noh drama⁷ and also association with kawaii (cute) faces in Japanese manga as “masks” portrayed in graphics. Masks are for disguise, for perfection, for acceptance according to the social norms, so characters’ kawaii faces resemble perfection and reveal their fear to show their real selves. Moreover, these masks also imply characters’ uncertainty, lies, and disguise, such as Hamlet’s uncertainty toward life and disguise of his madness, Claudius’s murder of old Hamlet, Gertrude’s

7 Noh, also called Nōgaku (能樂) in Japanese, has been a classical Japanese theatrical form since the 14^th century. It contains multifarious elements in the show, including the performance of masks, music, costumes, dance drama, and so on. The performers would wear traditional Japanese costumes and masks to conceal their facial expressions and emotions when dancing on the stage. During the performance, the actors primarily use their visual appearances and body movements to suggest their emotions and the essence of the story.

seeming reluctance to marry Claudius, Ophelia’s sorrow after her loss of Hamlet’s love. These unspeakable narrations and emotions are all hidden under the masks of kawaii faces in manga.

After one of the players gives a speech, Hamlet is amused and asks him if the players can play The Murder of Gonzago. Then, the players retire to prepare for the show and Hamlet is left alone, pondering about his plan of mousetrap to reveal his uncle’s guilt. As Hamlet confidently narrates that⁸ “[f]or murderer, though it ha[s] no tongue to speak, will speak. I’ll have these players play something like the murder of my father before my uncle. I’ll observe his looks. . . wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King,” the flashback of the poisoned fluid appears again, reminding the readers of how the old King is murdered (Vieceli 73).

What is more, two white masks show up in the middle of the page with the black background beneath them. By means of comparison between white masks and black background, it implies that the hypocritical mask that Claudius wears will be

unmasked, and those filthy and secret crimes done under the table will be disclosed as well. Before the play begins, Hamlet informs Horatio to observe his uncle tightly during the performance. This is important for Hamlet to prove the authenticity of the ghost’s story, and then rationalizes Hamlet’s action of revenge.

The play begins with the player King bidding farewell to the player Queen in the form of two black paper-cut silhouettes on the top page. Then, the panel gets closer to focus on the player Queen’s depressed face with tears at the bottom of the page, narrating “[n]one wed the second but who killed the first” (3.2.162). Meanwhile, the portrait of the player Queen’s sorrowful image juxtaposes two small panels which depict the images of shocked Gertrude and calm Hamlet. Both of them share the same

8 The original lines are spoken by Hamlet in Act 2 Scene 2, lines 570-82.

word balloon with the symbol of ellipsis, enabling the readers to infer the characters’

thoughts according to their different facial expressions after hearing the player Queen’s lines. When Hamlet inquires Gertrude’s opinion about the show, Gertrude simply answers “[t]he lady doth protests too much, methinks” (3.2.210; Vieceli 97).

Different from the original text, Hamlet does not reply “O’ but she’ll keep her word”

(3.2.211). Instead, he says nothing, suggesting his resentment against his mother, who does not keep her word but marries Claudius. At the same time, Claudius does not have any obvious change of emotion on his face but his clenching fist shows his agitation and uneasiness.

As the play goes on to the climax of the poison scene, the page is divided into three parts: the close-up of the poisoned syringe at the top, the scene of how the player King is poisoned by the murderer in the middle, and the frame describing the aspects of Gertrude, Ophelia, Hamlet, Horatio, and Claudius at the bottom. This frame is designed in five panels which separately describe five people’s facial expressions from different angles. Here, the technique of sharing the same word balloon in ellipsis is applied again, and encourages the readers to have their perspectives to investigate what kind of thoughts are in these characters’ minds.

Afterwards, Claudius stands up and shouts: “Give me some light. Away” (3.2.

247) while Hamlet and Horatio calmly sit aside, observing Claudius’s unusual reaction toward the play. On the same page, the depiction of Hamlet’s face with only one eye, which has the image of fire, showing his rage under the mask of calmness.

During the play-within-the-play, only the player who plays the role of the murderer wears a mask, which indicates this role’s ambiguity and uncertainty. Furthermore, because the player does not show his real image, the true murderer under the stage will easily project himself on the murder scene, and recall how he murders the late

king with the poisoned syringe. In this way, Hamlet can make the murderer self-evident and catches the conscience of the murderer.

After the play, Hamlet has a conversation with Horatio through the

communicative screen to confirm Claudius’s abnormal reaction. From Hamlet’s relaxed position on the bed, it shows that he has successfully proved that the murderer is Claudius, and this verification enables Hamlet to keep carrying out the ghost’s request; that is, to revenge for his father. In Claudius’s confession scene, he goes into a chapel where the statue of Mary stands still in the middle. He kneels down and murmurs his confession. We see Claudius kneels in the upper-right of the frame, and the aspect moves away from Claudius and focuses on Hamlet, who holds a sword behind Claudius, preparing to kill him.

Nevertheless, Hamlet hesitates and withdraws his sword, for he knows that he will send his enemy to heaven. Strangely, when Hamlet takes out the sword and prepares to kill Claudius, the shadow of Hamlet which is reflected on the wall is Hamlet’s shape; however, when he decides not to kill Claudius, the shadow seems to become the shape of Satan, who wears a black cloak and holds a knife in his hand.

The mysterious shadow indicates that Hamlet’s hesitation and decision on not killing Claudius will bring forth the death of himself and foreshadows the following tragedy.