Hamlet Group

Question:

slyates91
slyates91
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What characteristics do Hamlet and Laertes have in common?

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Posted by slyates91 on Thursday March 5, 2009 at 12:03 PM and tagged with hamlet, hamlet and laertesfoils.

Answers:

  1. ray-eston-smith-jr
    ray-eston-smith-jr

    "But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
    That to Laertes I forgot myself;
    For, by the image of my cause, I see
    The portraiture of his"

    Both had fathers who wanted to relive their lives vicariously through their sons.  (I get that from general considerations.  There are no lines that explicitly say that.)

    Both wanted to return to the countries where they had been living.  But Laertes was given permission to return to his playboy lifestyle in France, while Hamlet, not allowed to "carve for himself," was kept in the "prison" of Denmark.

    Both are sons of murdered fathers who feel duty-bound to seek revenge.

    Hamlet "shakes hands and parts" with his friends, so he can confront the King "alone and naked," without making his friends "spokes to his wheel."  Laertes, in contrast, had a mob at his back when he confronted the King.

    Hamlet is worried about endangering his soul by doing wrong:  "The spirit that I have seen may be the devil...and...abuses me to damn me."  Laertes, on the other hand, didn't care about right or wrong: "To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!  Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
    I dare damnation."

    In the end, both Hamlet and Laertes save their souls by exchanging forgiveness. 

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    Posted by ray-eston-smith-jr on Thursday March 5, 2009 at 3:04 PM