STANISLAVSKY SENSE MEMORY

Sense memory is a form of emotional recall theorised by Konstantin Stanislavsky in which actors are able to access emotions from their memory. Hamlet is distraught over the pain of his fathers death, causing him to relapse into a depressive spiral, reminiscing on him. This is Hamlets way of grieving for his father.

An actor will experience an emotionally traumatic experience like finding out they've lost their brother, but they will remember the feeling of being that sad to use later. They will remember this through emotional recall and then reuse it at a later time.

My experience with emotional recall and sense memory....

For  Hamlet, as I've mentioned before, I will use my own Grandfathers death as a stimulus for the grieving for King Hamlet as I am still grieving for my granddad, but perhaps I'm in stage stage four with my granddad. My dad will be my actual stimulus for my fathers death. During the beginning of the play I will play a projection of my own dad. My stimulus for Ophelia will be my girlfriend.

If we break down the grieving process into five stages it would look something like this:

1. Denial and isolation
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance. 

One (Denial and Anger)

Hamlet during his Denial and Isolation stage of mourning would be during the opening section of the play in which Hamlet doesn't attend his fathers funeral, instead opting to review his family films on a projector to ope with the intense loss he's feeling.

Two (Anger)

Anger. Hamlet is most certainly angry. During scene two, after meeting with the dead King Hamlets ghost, he is told the revelation that his father was poisoned in his ear by Claudius, the now king of Denmark. Hamlets grieving is forced to stage two by the ghost, leaving Hamlet unable to grieve properly for his father. This means that the only way for Hamlet to reach stage five, is by inevitably killing King Claudius.

Three (Bargaining)

In this stage, bargaining, people usually tend to try to turn to religion or some higher power. In our case, Hamlet swears to God that he will kill Claudius. "I have sworn't". Hamlet often references time and God in his speeches. Hamlet is constantly infatuated with the concept of death and the passage of time. It is in this stage that he truly realises time, and that he makes that self agreement with God that he will kill his fathers usurper.

Four (Depression)

The second Hamlet leaves the stage of scene two to go and play Something in the Way, this is an acknowledgement that he's upset about the whole situation. I would say this is a mixture of  stage two and four in one. He's acknowledging that he's angry but he's too depressed to make the move.

Five (Acceptance)

The only time we see Hamlets acceptance is in the finale, and it's only for about twenty seconds if that. The second Claudius takes his last breathe from under Hamlets arm, does he enter stage five. But he only truly enters it the second we see his fathers ghost walk on stage and hug Hamlet. It is at the point that order is restored for Hamlet. He has a moment of serenity before he commits suicide (up to the audience to interpret) Hamlet experiences stage five for only a few minutes, but the look on the Hamlets faces says a thousand words, like this is a high from heroin, peace, time ticking, never ending.