Two men of genius who came from nowhere to break the rules were David Garrick in 1741 and Sir Laurence Olivier in 1937. These two men will be the major subjects of this thesis. Both Garrick and Olivier introduced new styles of acting to the theatre in Shakespearian plays.

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This thesis traces the construction and evolution of the star text of Laurence Olivier as it relates to cinematic Shakespeare production and formulations of nationhood in 1940s and 1950s Britain. Organised around an examination of Olivier’s four Shakespearean film adaptations (including the unmade Macbeth), the project focuses on the ways in which the concept of 'Shakespeare' – signalled throughout by its italicisation – is appropriated through Olivier’s image in relation to the industrial and cultural contexts of the wartime and post-war British film industry. It also examines articulations of Shakespearean selfhood and related reappropriations of the filmic image in Olivier’s life writing, exploring how Olivier engages with his own star persona. In examining the relationship that exists between broader industrial-cultural appropriations of 'Shakespeare' and a sense of a star’s personal connection with the national poet, the thesis explores (in addition to the film texts) extratextual materials such as fan letters, publicity documents, theatre and film ephemera, magazine interviews, newspaper criticism, industrial reports and personal and professional correspondence in order to interrogate the national-cultural function of a star text whose image is aligned to 'Shakespeare'. This thesis seeks to make an original contribution to Shakespeare on screen studies by constituting the fullest study of Laurence Olivier’s cinematic Shakespearean career to date. In introducing and analysing previously unseen archival material (including screenplays and shooting scripts relating to the unmade Macbeth), the thesis informs our understanding of the evolving history of British Shakespeare production and, therefore, of the history of Shakespeare on screen. Rethinking Olivier’s cultural currency as a Shakespearean star in 2012 and in the space of the archive, the thesis also contributes to the theoretical thinking underpinning Shakespearean performance studies and archival studies. Finally, the thesis opens the way for further considerations as to how (and to what effect) the Shakespearean star operates as a national and transnational phenomenon.

In act I, scene 2 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, one of the key themes presented is the theme of order versus disorder. Gertrude's hasty marriage to Claudius and their lack of grief over the recent death of King Hamlet violate Hamlet's sense of order and are the cause of Hamlet's anger and despair in 1.2. Rather than contrast Hamlet with his uncle and mother, Olivier constructs an Oedipal relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude--unsupported by the text--that undermine's the characterization of Hamlet as a man of order. In contrast, Tony Richardson presents Claudius' and Gertrude's actions as a violation of the order in which Hamlet believes.

The discursive and critical positions of the ‘classic’ nineteenth-century novel, particularly the woman’s novel, in the field of adaptation studies have been dominated by long-standing concerns about textual fidelity and the generic processes of the text-screen transfer. The sociocultural patterns of adaptation criticism have also been largely ensconced in representations of literary women on screen. Taking a decisive twist from tradition, this thesis traces the evolution of representations of masculinity in the malleable characters of Rochester and Heathcliff in film and television adaptations of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights between 1939 and 2009. Concepts of masculinity have been a neglected area of enquiry in studies of the ‘classic’ novel on screen. Adaptations of the Brontës’ novels, as well as the adapted novels of other ‘classic’ women authors such as Jane Austen, George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell, increasingly foreground male character in traditionally female-oriented narratives or narratives whose primary protagonist is female. This thesis brings together industrial histories, textual frames and sociocultural influences that form the wider contexts of the adaptations to demonstrate how male characterisation and different representations of masculinity are reformulated and foregrounded through three different adaptive histories of the narratives of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Through the contours of the film and television industries, the application of text and context analysis, and wider sociocultural considerations of each period an understanding of how Rochester and Heathcliff have been transmuted and centralised within the adaptive history of the Brontë novel.