Hamlet vs. Laertes

             During the time of the Elizabethan theater, plays about revenge were very common and a regular convention was formed on what aspects should be put into a typical revenge tragedy. In revenge tragedies, a crime is committed and for various reason laws and justice cannot punish the crime, so the individuals go through with the revenge in spite of everything. The play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, closely follows the dramatic guidelines in Elizabethan theater. The characters of Hamlet and Laertes both seek retribution for the unlawful killing of their fathers. Although both Hamlet and Laertes love their fathers and Ophelia, Hamlet's revenge for his father's murder is plagued with uncertainty, whereas Laertes revenge for his father's murder is predictable and to the point.
             Both Hamlet and Laertes are alike in the fact that both love and respect their fathers deeply. Hamlet's respect for his father is demonstrated by the way he speaks of him:
             See what grace was seated on his brow, Hyperion's curls, in the front of Jove himself, An eye like Mars, to threaten and command, A station like the heralds Mercury New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill, A combination and a form indeed Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man. (III, iv, 65-72)
             Hamlet idolizes his father and compares his nobility and grace to that of a god. Moreover, Hamlet shows the great love he has for his father in his disgust for his mother's conduct after his father's death:
             A combination and a form indeed Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man. This was your husband. Look you now what follows. Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? (III, iv, 70-75)
             Through many soliloquies, he analyses to great lengths why she betrayed the memory of her first husband by marrying his brother only two months later. Li...

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Hamlet vs. Laertes. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 19:06, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/78314.html