Hamlet Fortinbras Revenge

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Death is an unfortunate event has the ability to create strong emotions in those affected. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, three young men, Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras, all lose their father to death. As a result, all three attempt, in one way or another, to enact revenge. Even though Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all have a common goal in avenging their father’s deaths, each one of them chooses to carry out their revenge in a different way. In the end, only Fortinbras remains alive, showing that he was the sole character to execute his revenge correctly. The three young men of Shakespeare’s well-known tragedy are only similar in the sense that their fathers were killed and that they seek revenge. In lines 91-101 of act one, scene one, …show more content…
Hamlet sits on one of the spectrum, carefully planning out his course of action rather than taking any. He is “prompted to [his] revenge by heaven and hell, must, like a whore, unpack [his] heart with words” (2.2.613-614). By saying this, Hamlet reveals to the audience that he is a coward and has done nothing to avenge his father but sit and lament. He is envious of the actors that visit the kingdom that can muster up emotion to a fictitious issue while he cannot take any action for the death of his father. Laertes, on the other hand, is on the other end of the spectrum, ready to take immediate action as soon as he hears that his father has been killed.He leaves France at once and shows up at the castle, sword drawn, shouting, “To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation” (4.5.149-151). This behavior displays Laertes’ brash nature and willingness to do anything in order to honor Polonius. As opposed to Hamlet, he is ready to take immediate action, rather than mourn his father and meticulously concoct a plan. Both mens’ plans for revenge ultimately failed, due to the fact that they took such extreme measures. In the end, Hamlet and Laertes are both killed as a result of their actions, revealing to the audience that neither man had the correct …show more content…
Near the beginning of the play, Claudius states that Fortinbras wants to regain the lands lost by his father. This action taken by Fortinbras shows that he has no desire to kill Hamlet or Claudius to enact revenge but rather wants to restore his father’s honor by conquering the lands that he had once owned. As well as this, when Fortinbras shows up at the castle after the match between Hamlet and Laertes, he states that Hamlet “was likely, had he been put on, to have proved most royal; and for his passage, the soldier’s music and the rite of war speak loudly for him” (5.2.443-446). This quote, as well as the fact that he claimed the throne of Denmark, shows Fortinbras’ eagerness to act as well as his calm demeanor. He, like Laertes and Hamlet, wanted to honor his father’s death, but rather than being brash in his actions or thinking too much, he thought out his plan and then executed it without hatred. This method seems to be the correct way to go about things, given that he is the only one of the three left
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