Hossein Aliakbari Harehdasht

This thesis employs a comparative study of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark and Varuzh Karim Masihi’s film adaptation, Tardid. The study concerns the way in which adaptation theory can help to explain the communication between the adapted text and the adaptation so as to form a proper understanding of the artistic and cultural aspects of the two sides. In order to make this happen, initially, a series of definitions of adaptation and modes of it, as suggested by well-known adaptation theorists, are reviewed. Additionally, the theory is put into practice by making constant comparisons between the film and the play, highlighting the narrative structures and selection of particular conflicts, the re-imagination of major characters as well as the alteration of thematic perspectives. Moreover, two more significant adaptations that seem to have partly inspired the Iranian one have been taken into consideration. Influenced by contemporary critical approaches, the film not only emphasizes what has been usually left unnoticed in many cinematic versions of the play but also draws the attention of its audience to a series of new aspects that should be counted in the overall understanding of the adapted text. The study of the critical parts of the film in relation with the play discloses the fact that in spite of cultural and historical differences between the two works, there is a link that always keeps connecting both of them until the end. By tying an English play from centuries ago with the story of his movie from contemporary Iran, the filmmaker bridges one of the dominant mental concerns of the hero of the play with contemporary Iranians who are faced with a never-ending dilemma about shifting from traditions to modernity.