Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Contrasting Fortinbras and Laertes with Hamlet Essay -- comparison com
In William Shakespeares tragedy Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras and Hamlet find themselves in similar situations. While Hamlet waits for the right time to avenge his fathers destruction, Laertes learns of his fathers death and immediately wants vengeance, and Fortinbras awaits his chance to recapture land that used to belong to his father. Laertes and Fortinbras go about accomplishing their desires quite differently than Hamlet. While Hamlet acts slowly and carefully, Laertes and Fortinbras taste their revenge with haste. Although Laertes and Fortinbras are minor characters, Shakespeare molds them in order to contrast with Hamlet. Fortinbras and, to a greater extent, Laertes act as foils to Hamlet with respect to their motives for revenge, execution of their plans and appearance while carrying out their plans. Although each character plots to avenge his father in the play, the motives of Laertes and Fortinbras differ greatly than that of Hamlet. Fortinbras, who schemes to rebuild his fathers kingdom, leads thousands of men into battle, attempting to capture a trivial and worthless piece of Poland. After his uncle warned him against attacking Denmark. The added land will do little to benefit Norways prosperity, further this campaign may cost twain thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats (4.4.26) . This shows that pride is a driving component behind Fortinbras plan because he is willing to put the lives of his countrymen at jeopardize for a minimal gain. Laertes, on the other hand, is compelled to seek revenge because he loses his father and eventually his sister. The root of Laertes revenge appears to be the love for his family because he proclaims that he will be revenged / most throughly for his father (4.5... ...side Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Mack, Maynard. The gentlemans gentleman of Hamlet. Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Shakespeare Modern Essays in Criticism. Rev. ed. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. brisk York Oxford University P., 1967. 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. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. mom Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York G.P. Putnams Sons, 1907-21 New York Bartleby.com, 2000 http//www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html
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