Hamlet Essay

Eddie Sanchez
Ms. Murphy
English IV
11 January 2013
Hamlet Essay

Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all have the same purpose in the play, and it’s to avenge their fathers. Hamlet is trying to avenge his father because his uncle had poisoned him to become king and take the thrown. Hamlet is also trying to avenge his father mainly because his mother thought it was fine to get with hamlets uncle little did she know that he had poisoned her husband. So now old Hamlets ghost is reappearing and telling hamlet to avenge him and kill his uncle. Laertes who had also had his controversy with hamlet is avenging his father’s Polonius’s death because hamlet had killed him. Although Hamlet and Laertes acted totally different about their father death, mainly because hamlet didn’t act quickly enough into avenging his father and Laertes acted immediately and got an army of 10,000 troops to invade the palace. When Hamlet had killed Polonius he had started a long time feud which had ultimately resulted in another death. Fortinbras, who had also had the courage to avenge his father because he had made a bet with old Hamlet and lost his life during the process and also lost some precious land, now Fortinbras will do whatever it takes to regain his father’s land back. Fortinbras's father was killed by Hamlet's father 30 years earlier. Fortinbras is an evil coward who didn't try to recover the lost lands until after Hamlet Sr died. If Fortinbras had attacked while old King Hamlet was still alive, the old King might have challenged young Fortinbras to a personal duel. But young Fortinbras was a coward who preferred to send thousand of commoners to die for his rotten royal "honor." So after old King Hamlet finally died, young Fortinbras got together a army of thugs to go to war against Denmark, but was easily diverted to easier pickings in Poland. In Poland, Fortinbras sent 10,000 men to their graves for a worthless piece of land. Laertes, when he thought King Claudius had killed his father, immediately confronted the King - but with a mob to back him up. After hearing Claudius side of the story, Laertes immediately began plotting with Claudius to kill Hamlet by treachery. He didn't care about right or wrong, he just wanted revenge, even if it meant cutting Hamlet's throat in a church. He didn't bother to hear Hamlet's side of the story. However, just before the duel Laertes did finally hear Hamlet's apology which he would have accepted but he foolishly deferred to the opinions of "elder masters" - meaning Claudius - and continued the duel against his conscious. Laertes's father had warned him Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. (1.3.) But Laertes ignored that advice. When plotting to murder Hamlet, Laertes said "for my means, I'll husband them so well, They shall go far with little." Then Laertes died fighting for a borrowed cause . In a sense, he was killed because of borrowing and lending of sword and that loan lost "both itself and friend. However, before he died Laertes and Hamlet exchanged forgiveness and that saved both their souls. Hamlet wasn't naturally vengeful, but he was loyal to his father so he swore an oath to his father to seek revenge. But Hamlet didn't want to endanger his friends in the dangerous mission of seeking revenge against a sitting King, so he urged his friends to "shake hands and part." In the last act, he returned to Denmark "naked and alone" to confront the King. Hamlet was very concerned about right and wrong. Not sure that the ghost was really his father rather than a deceitful demon, he staged the Mousetrap to verify Claudius' guilt. In the last act, Hamlet realized that, in pursuing revenge, he had been untrue to himself - had written his father's command to live all alone in his brain. He had from himself been taken away and that was madness. A common theory of madness was that it was caused by demonic possession. At least psychologically and metaphorically, Hamlet had been possessed by his father's spirit. However, Hamlet recovered his true self by the end and saved his soul, but not his life. So in hamlet there all avengers, and that’s mostly because their fathers decided to make some choices that had resulted in bad endings. Now that had the sons of them breaking war against each other. Hamlet found himself in a dilemma and had to kill his uncle, but he later died because Laertes had stabbed him with a poisoned blade. Gertrude which is hamlets mother was accidently killed by claudious by drinking the wine that was originally intended for hamlet so he could have died, but not knowing what was going on Gertrude had drank it and died but she had realized before dyeing that claudious had killed her ex-husband and the former king by poisoning him. Laertes dies in the foyer of the castle in Hamlet, after trying to kill Hamlet in a duel. He poisons his own sword, then gets slashed three times by his own sword after losing it to Hamlet. Fortinbras is one of a very few characters to survive. He comes in at the end to find almost everyone dead and is confused. Not only does he survive, he gets to be the king of Denmark by default. His father, who shared his name, died long before the play started. Therefore the hamlet play was all about avenging their fathers and doing what they thought was necessary, and fighting for their pride and honor. Hamlet was a very great play and had many themes that are significant to the real world and are still seen and used today.