Introduction
Define ‘revenge’
Revenge is the action of using harm on someone for an injury or wrong doing.
Fortinbras, Hamlet, and Laertes purpose of implementing revenge was to avenge their father's death.
Fortinbras: regains lost honor of his father by gaining property (land).
Hamlet: tries to avenge his father’s death by wanting to kill Claudius.
Laertes: wants to revenge against Hamlet after killing both his father (Polonius), and sister (Ophelia).
Thesis: William Shakespeare uses Fortinbras, Hamlet, and Laertes to show how each character uses revenge to avenge the deaths within each of their own families.
Body Paragraph #1 (Fortinbras):
Who is Fortinbras?
Fortinbras is the Prince of Norway, whose father was killed by Hamlet’s father.
His father, ‘Old
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In contrast to Hamlet’s long waiting to kill and Laertes quickness, he acts a lot more rationally. Rather than contemplating the circumstances or acting on impulse, he forms a provocative plan.
Young, passionate man that will stop at nothing to avenge his father’s death.
This is a significant quote because it gives the reader the beginning concept of revenge seeking in the play.
Successfully invaded Denmark, and claimed the throne.
Very one of the few characters that survived through the play. This shows that acting rationally with speedy actions helps gain a superior win.
Body Paragraph #2 (Hamlet):
Who is Hamlet?
Hamlet is the son of ‘deceased Hamlet’ and now the nephew of the present king ‘Claudius’.
“Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.”
Hamlet claims to see his father’s ghost in the darkness.
The ghost tells that he was poisoned and murdered in the garden while he was sleeping by his own brother, Claudius.
The ghosts wants Hamlet to seek revenge against Claudius.
“O, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!”
After seeing Fortinbras plan, Hamlet feels humiliated.
He wants to avenge father’s death by murdering his
The first foil or character that sets off Hamlet, in the play is Laertes. After King Hamlet's death, he, along with Prince Hamlet, return to Denmark for the funeral services. That is the first sign that Laertes will become a foil to Hamlet in the play. Both Laertes and Hamlet are very fond of Laertes' sister, Ophelia, which is the second similarity of the two. Another similarity of Laertes and Hamlet is the father figure of each, Polonius to Laertes and Claudius to Hamlet, has someone to watch them to see if they are acting accordingly. [accordingly?] In act two, scene one, Polonius instructs Reynaldo to go to Paris to give Laertes money and messages, and to find other Danes that will give him gossip about Laertes. In act two, scene two, Claudius instructs Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out why Hamlet is acting so strangely. The next similarity of Laertes and Hamlet is that they both grieve over a death in the play. Laertes grieves the death of Ophelia, while Hamlet grieves over his father, King Hamlet's death. The final similarity of Laertes and Hamlet is that both seek revenge for the death of their fathers. Laertes wishes to kill Hamlet after Hamlet murders Polonius and Hamlet wants to kill Claudius for the murder of King Hamlet. Both succeed in their quest for revenge.
”(153) It becomes clear that the parallels presented throughout the play are there to further illuminate the flaws of Hamlet’s character. Laertes is a hot-headed man looking for revenge. His father was killed by Hamlet and his sister was driven insane due to the series of events that took place because of Hamlet. Like Hamlet, Laertes wants to avenge his father by killing the man who killed Polonius.
Troubled by royal treason, ruthless scheming, and a ghost, Denmark is on the verge of destruction. Directly following King Hamlet's death, the widowed Queen Gertrude remarried Claudius, the King's brother. Prince Hamlet sees the union of his mother and uncle as a "hasty and incestuous" act (Charles Boyce, 232). He then finds out that Claudius is responsible for his father's treacherous murder. His father's ghost asks Hamlet to avenge his death and Hamlet agrees. He plans very carefully, making sure that he doesn't kill Claudius when in he has already been forgiven for his sins. Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, the King's advisor, thinking that it was Claudius hiding behind a curtain spying on Hamlet and his mother. This drives Ophelia, Polonius' daughter and Hamlet's love interest, insane. She then drowns in a suspected suicide when she falls from a tree into a river. Laertes, Ophelia's brother, teams up with Claudius and plot revenge on the strained prince.
In the play several characters are compelled to restore family honor by exacting vengeance. Fortinbras tries to reclaim his father’s honor by reclaiming territory, Hamlet must get back at Claudius for killing his father, and Laertes must get back at Hamlet to avenge his father and sister. Each character is driven in the play to get revenge at someone. Hamlet is
Laertes is an interesting character within Hamlet because he suffers through a great deal of loss. In Hamlet it is indeed evident that he is willing to do anything to protect his family. That is the reason for why Laertes decided to act vengeful within the majority of the play. The author shows an antipathetic tone about revenge. The character that portrays this is Laertes. The literary elements that Shakespeare uses are diction, metaphors, and tragedy. These literary elements are chosen by Shakespeare to show the effect as to what stakes Laertes is willing to go for everyone.
It is the idea of revenge that sends a cool shiver down the spines of justly men when they begin to question as to why someone would stoop to such a level. But yet it is still more than an idea for revenge has been carried out in various forms along all the eras of history side-by-side of that of novels and tragedies. Even so, revenge is still a dark scheme; an evil plague of the mind per se. It is such a plague that will turn even the greatest persons of the brightest, optimistically capable of minds into lowly, as well as lonely, individuals. Thus, revenge will, and can, only end in despair and agony of the mind. Therefore, provided that all that has been said is true, revenge would appear quite unseemly to the observant onlooker. However, taking an in-depth insight into revenge you can uncover quite a compelling feature, which is best summed up into one word. Pride. Pride is the one clear motivational proprietor needed to push a protagonist into the downward spiral of personal vendetta. Without pride, revenge is no more than a mindless massacre of flesh and bone ending in the obliteration of any hope for reconciliation.
Rosenberg, Marvin. "Laertes: An Impulsive but Earnest Young Aristocrat." Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: Univ. of Delaware P., 1992.
Although similar in age, class and ambition to destroy their fathers killers, Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras each have characteristics that make them different from each other and show how each acted unlike the others when carrying out their plans. Hamlet seems to be the one who lets things dwell in his mind before taking any action or making an attempt at trying to get on with things. He shows this after the death of his father when he remains in morning and a depressed state for three months without trying to get on with his life. Laertes seems to be the more quick minded of the three as he makes hasty judgements about Hamlet and is quick to force his opinion upon his sister, Ophelia about his fears for her if she stays in the relationship. “For Hamlet and the trifling of his favor, hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, a violet in the youth of primy nature, forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, the perfume and suppliance of a minute—No more.
Revenge is a recurring theme in Hamlet. Although Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death, he is afraid of what would result from this. In the play Hamlet, Hamlet’s unwillingness to revenge appears throughout the text; Shakespeare exhibits this through Hamlet’s realization that revenge is not the right option, Hamlet‘s realization that revenge is the same as the crime which was already committed, and his understanding that to revenge is to become a “beast” and to not revenge is as well (Kastan 1).
Revenge is such an enormous part of a being human. It is something that no matter how much you try to avoid part of you will persistently lust for it. When you are hurt in any way your natural instinct will always tell you to make the one who hurt you feel just as bad if not worse as how you felt. It is such a natural and powerful feeling, that when revenge is incorporated into a story it makes it so much stronger. Revenge will make you see so many more sides of characters and make them seem much more complex. Revenge can give fictional characters a more human quality. That is why so many writers use it as their theme.
In a society which idolizes success, it is no wonder that people are willing act in selfish ways in order to benefit themselves. Afterall, a person can theoretically reach a goal simply through self-benefitting actions and actions to eliminate competition. In the midst of such a cut-throat society, emerges the idea of revenge. While some may see revenge as an equalizer in a scenario of actions done to benefit oneself and harm others, revenge can also be seen as an unfortunate part of human nature from a moral perspective. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, revenge is portrayed as immoral, as it attempts to justify wrong doings with depravity and causes ruination to both the innocent and the avenger himself.
In Hamlet, the passionate and hasty Laertes and the vengeful Fortinbras are foils for Hamlet's introspective personality and provide a basis for comparison of the hero's course of action. Laertes and Hamlet share a common goal of revenge for the murder of their father. Though their situation and the circumstances of their father's death coincide, their individual responses to the fatalities differ greatly, and serve to highlight Hamlet's tragic flaw. Upon hearing of his father's death, Laertes becomes totally preoccupied with thoughts of revenge. While Hamlet scrutinizes and evaluates the consequences of his actions, Laertes acts without forethought, saying, "Let come what comes only I'll be revenged / Most thoroughly for my father" (IV.v.138). However, his hastiness allows him to fall victim to Claudius' manipulative nature and he becomes a puppet in Claudius' plot to dispose of Hamlet. This accentuates one of Hamlets strengths, one that he reveals when he states, "Call me what instrument you will you cannot play upon me." (III.ii.380) he is not easily influenced by the people around him.
Old Hamlet is killed by his brother Claudius. Only two months after her husband’s death a vulnerable Gertrude marries her husband’s brother Claudius. Gertrude’s weakness opens the door for Claudius to take the throne as the king of Denmark. Hamlet is outraged by this, he loses respect for his mother as he feels that she has rejected him and has taken no time to mourn her own husband’s death. One night old Hamlets ghost appears to prince Hamlet and tells him how he was poisoned by his own brother.
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society, coupled with his innate tendency to over-think his actions, leads to an unfocused mission of vengeance that brings about not only his own death, but also the unnecessary deaths of nearly all of the other main characters in the revenge tragedy.
According to Collins English Dictionary, revenge can be defined as hurting or punishing someone who has hurt or harmed you. The purpose of this assignment is to break down Francis Bacon’s arguments and argue in favor of Hamlet on why he should avenge his father’s death. Hamlet was commanded by the ghost of his father in Act 1 to avenge his foul and unnatural death.