ipl-logo

Laertes In Hamlet

535 Words3 Pages

In the play called Hamlet, characters like Laertes and Hamlet have both experienced their father’s murder. Their reactions display either right or wrong justifications throughout the play. Their reactions caused deaths, violence, and miscommunications to foil their plans of vengeance. Despite Laertes and Hamlet seeking vengeance, Hamlet’s reaction was worse than Laertes’s reaction. One reason is that Hamlet’s reaction involved more innocent people to his bloodbath. Hamlet’s reaction caused innocent people like “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and other sailors killed” in the crossfire of Hamlet’s ship to England (4.6.19-20). His actions of being sad, philosophical, and dishonest to Claudius and his associates enabled Claudius to send Hamlet on a boat to England to get executed. In William Shakespeare: The Tragedies, Hamlet unknowing “commits meaningless abuse to gain unplanned pleasure and recklessness in the play” (Jorgensen.52). With Hamlet’s tunnel vision, his actions in the play were destined to get more people harmed. Compared to Laertes’s involving people to his bloodbath, Laertes’s reaction was more …show more content…

Before Laertes’s and Hamlet’s slow death from the poison of their swords, Hamlet waits for Laertes to ask for “forgiveness” (5.2.315). Hamlet’s action of being prideful gets him killed in his plan for vengeance, and Hamlet had the audacity to wait until the last moment of his death to hear Laertes asking for forgiveness. Hamlet “actions are delayed because he want to execute his vengeance plot” (Jorgensen.48). Comparing to Laertes, Laertes also waited for the last moment to pressure hamlet to beg for his life. However, Laertes failed because he was going to be the first person to die in the duel. So, Laertes become the first person to ask for redemption by telling the truth to Hamlet. Laertes’s reaction to become the first man to ask for forgiveness makes Laertes’s action morally

Show More
Related
781 Words | 4 Pages

After the death of his father, Laertes becomes consumed with anger and willing to do whatever it takes to avenge his father's death. He bargains with Claudius, hoping to use his loyalty to gain the power to take revenge. Laertes falls into depression as he realizes the consequences of his actions, ultimately leading to his tragic end. Laertes' story shows how grief can drive individuals to extremes as they seek justice for their loss. "Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet; Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me."

Read More
998 Words | 4 Pages

In the course of this duel the queen is poisoned by a cup meant for Hamlet, and a sword with a poison tip not only fatally pierces Hamlet but also its wielder, Laertes. The dramatic ending to this play is filled with one of the main themes: death. When looking at the events of this tragedy, one almost imagines what they would do, were they in Hamlet’s position. Still, it is a known fact that Shakespeare wasn’t one to endorse revenge, yet he wrote an entire play all about it, and it became one of his best

Read More
768 Words | 4 Pages

The Awakening Of Hamlet and Laertes Comparing Laertes and Hamlet. Figuring out how they are alike and dislike in many ways, most of the play they are well alike. After Hamlet kills Polonius, Laertes down the road faces the same problems as Hamlet; a murdered father. In the beginning Laertes and Hamlet didn’t have the same similarities, but since both of there fathers were murdered they both have something in common. While Hamlet, is messing around and playing with the murderer as if he was an animal, Laertes takes immediate action.

Read More
735 Words | 3 Pages

The two men serve as foils to Hamlet with respect to their motives for revenge, the way they take action, and their behavior while carrying out their plans. Laertes learns of his father’s death and wants to seek vengeance immediately. He shows that his revenge is to prove his love for his family by saying he will “be revenged Most thoroughly for

Read More
1463 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout the last two acts of the novel, we see Laertes change from an impulsive instigator into a more wise and rational person who realizes he is in the wrong. After he first learns of his father’s death, Laertes is seething due to his misery, and consequently, strives for immediate retaliation. Contrastingly, at the conclusion of the duel scene, he is downcast over his looming death and the fact that he has caused Hamlet’s death, while also being ashamed of how quick he was to murder. Though to some, Laertes may be a seemingly insignificant character, it is Laertes affliction (as a result of his father’s death) that ultimately drives the novel to its grievous climax. Albeit tragic, if the end scene would not have happened, Laertes would not have had the opportunity to discover that he was wrong, and thus change.

Read More
925 Words | 4 Pages

One similarity that makes Laertes such a good foil to Hamlet is that they both return to Denmark when they have lost a father. However, the sharp contrast in their reaction to these deaths reveals more about Hamlet’s character. Upon returning to

Read More
567 Words | 3 Pages

Laertes Lacks Patience to Kill Hamlet in a Soliloquy Ending Act 5, scene 1 King of Denmark, Strengthen my patience? How can I be patient to kill the one whom slew my dear father and thus drove my beautiful sister insane? My entire family, never to return all because of one fool who blindly decided to take the life of my father without even knowing whom he was killing?!! Insanity! My father was right; Hamlet must truly be a madman.

Read More
1906 Words | 8 Pages

In William Shakespeare’s well known play Hamlet , there are several acts of violence that often keep the readers on their toes constantly wondering what will happen next. It all begins with the death of King Hamlet and comes to an end with no royal family in control of the castle, Elsinore, in Denmark. Each character has their own unique motive for self gain throughout the play, but Hamlet has a strong drive for the dangerous game of revenge. Hamlet wants to earn justice for his father who had his kingdom, wife, and crown all stolen out from underneath him when his life is innocently taken by his greedy uncle. “To be or not to be?” is the question

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

In Shakespeare's “Hamlet”, Laertes is one of Hamlet's greatest foils. Shakespeare uses Hamlet actions to contribute to the play's complexity around revenge and morality, but when compared to Laertes actions it highlights his shortcomings as a character. Laertes' impulsive behavior is the opposite of Hamlet's introspective personality. In the play, both men's fathers were murdered, but only Laertes was eager to take action for revenge. “Hamlet’s desire to avenge his father’s murder is foiled by Laertes’ impulsive attempt to rectify his father’s death” (Barreto).

Read More
470 Words | 2 Pages

Laertes was worried about his and his dad’s pride so he decide to murder hamlet. Laertes plans the big fencing match with Hamlet. He tricked hamlet and poisoned the tip of his sword. After he poisoned the tip of his sword everything went downhill. Laertes was being greedy because he wanted his dad to be king and stay king.

Read More
932 Words | 4 Pages

Hamlet: A Justified Retribution Through His Fatal Actions. Choices are constantly being made, influenced by the state of one’s mind. The mind is fragile and flawed; susceptible to taking actions with unforeseen consequences. In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the events leading to Hamlet’s ultimate downfall are through his actions, directly influenced by his tragic character flaws. Hamlet’s flaws of vengefulness, indecision, and arrogance fully explain his inevitable fate in his actions.

Read More
633 Words | 3 Pages

Almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother… Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune.” Laertes shows he is impulsive when he says he is going to kill Hamlet with a poisoned sword.

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

Then, Laertes chooses to become a participant in the killing of Hamlet. As aforementioned, this plan for death is a success, but causes many other deaths along with Hamlet to fail.

Read More
1168 Words | 5 Pages

His willingness to conspire with Claudius and deceive Hamlet into thinking that it is a fair fight. Eager to get his revenge, Laertes “[dips] a knife in” the poison so that nothing “can save [Hamlet] from death,” demonstrating the damaging consequences of acting on desires for revenge through deception (IV, vii, 159). In the end, Laertes does end up wounding and therefore killing Hamlet, however, “Laertes, as he himself admits, ‘is justly killed by [his] own treachery’ (5.2.297),” by also getting stabbed by the same poisoned blade

Read More
1194 Words | 5 Pages

This is evident in Shakespeare’s adoption of the revenge tragedy genre, whereby Hamlet plays villain and hero in equal measure. In the Aristotelian tradition, as the play progresses this conflicted hero undertakes actions he once found repulsive. Shakespeare achieves this through character doubling, pairing Hamlet and Claudius, Hamlet and Laertes, and Hamlet and Fortinbras as foils. Hamlet and Claudius are bound by blood and distrust. Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 2 Scene 2 embodies the struggle between rational thought and emotional action, Hamlet is torn between proving the guilt of his uncle and revenging his father.

Read More

More about Laertes In Hamlet

Related Topics

Open Document