Hamlet and Laerte's confrontations with death
Throughout this play, many deaths occurred causing tension in almost every scene. In "Hamlet", the two deaths that caused the most commotion were the deaths of Hamlet's and Laertes' fathers. Both of these deaths were tragic murders; but the responses of the two sons were very contrasting for the most part with very few similarities, other than the fact that both Hamlet and Laertes were distraught over the deaths of their fathers. Hamlet was much weaker in the handling of his father's death, whereas Laertes was more direct with dealing with the situation at hand.
"Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed seem, For they are actions that a man might play. But I have that within which passes show. These but the trappings and the suits of woe" (I.ii.82-86) this quote shows the depression that Hamlet was engulfed by, making the sorrow that he felt over his father's death, obvious to the readers. In act 1 scene 5, Hamlet was told by his father's ghost that his death was not a random but a murder committed by Hamlet's uncle; this information only added to Hamlet's depression and gave him an immense desire to get revenge. In act 4 scene 5, Laertes was told of his father's murder, and similarly to
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Other than those similarities, Hamlet and Laertes dealt with their father's deaths in opposing ways. Hamlet was a thinker about the situation and thought deeply about his actions, and Laertes was more of a man of action who acted with no hesitation when it came to avenging his father. Due to their two resemblances, superficially it is easy to see why one may assume the two characters are similar, but once you truly read "Hamlet" it is clear that these characters are far from similar when it comes to confronting their father's