The tragedy Hamlet revolves around three major families. Each one of the eldest sons in the family had one thing in common, they wanted revenge for a slaughtered father. Hamlet indirectly causes the death of Ophelia and his mother Young Hamlet believed that the only choice to redeem his father was to murdering the murderer.
In doing so, however, Hamlet became mad, and struck out at any and all who crossed his path. At one point in the play, Hamlet stabs Polonius, believing him to be King Claudius.
Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Hamlet contains three plots of revenge throughout the five acts of the play. Laertes, who was struck twice in quick succession by the death of his father and sister, wants to kill Hamlet.
Like Hamlet, Laertes wants to avenge his father by killing the man who killed Polonius. As described earlier, Hamlet is slow to act. Laertes, on the other hand, acts quickly and with precision, wasting no time in acquiring his target and formulating a plan. Robert Palfrey Utter, Jr. He is only stopped by Claudius, who advises him on a more subtle approach. Straight off the bat it is clear how efficient Laertes is compared to Hamlet. Hamlet wastes a large amount of time scheming up complex ideas on how to get a confession out of Claudius and how to kill him.
Laertes on the other hand wastes no time in getting a straight and to the point plan that he can execute immediately. After spending more than half the play watching Hamlet squirm around on the stage getting almost nothing accomplished, the audience would be acutely aware of the stark difference between Hamlet and Laertes even though they share the same motivations.
Laertes has his speed but he shares in Hamlets lack of critical thinking when he gets hot headed. The first person this affects is Polonius. While talking with his mother Hamlet mistakenly kills Polonius who is hiding behind a curtain. Yet he seems to show no remorse for killing an innocent person, he just drags him away and hides his body. With the ending of act 4 it seems as though both Hamlet and Laertes are going to get the revenge they were looking for.
He is faced with the huge task of seeking revenge on behalf of his father. Hamlet of course wants to carry out the plan of killing Claudius, but he knows that if he murders a king it is considered treason.
At this moment in the play Hamlet expresses a desire to live and therefore comes up with his plan to pretend to be insane, that way he could technically plead not guilty. Unfortunately, Hamlet ends up dying anyway. Although the ending of Hamlet is certainly not happy as we discussed in class, there is definitely a silver lining.
I never thought to think Fortinbras II was seeking revenge as well, but he is, as he raids the land that his father lost. In a typical revenge tragedy like The Spanish Tragedy , the hero faces two obstacles: to find out who the murderers are, and then to get himself into a position where he can kill them.
No character thwarts him in his desire for revenge, and, living in the same palace as his nemesis, he has many chances to enact his plot. Can we believe the evidence of our eyes? Is revenge justified? Can we predict the consequences of our actions? What happens when we die? While Hamlet , being a tragedy, is generally seen as a very serious play, in some ways it seems to make fun of the revenge tragedies that came before it.
With the character of Laertes, Shakespeare pokes fun at the traditional heroes of revenge tragedy. Unlike Hamlet, Laertes is ready to rush to his revenge, but Claudius is easily able to manipulate him and Laertes ends up begging forgiveness from the man he wanted to murder.
By making traditional revenge tragedies look ridiculous, Shakespeare shows us that the troubling philosophical doubt of Hamlet is more realistic than the passion and fury of plays like The Spanish Tragedy.
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