Hamlet Laertes And Fortinbras Analysis

Words: 996
Pages: 4

“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare is one of the most known plays in Literature. Shakespeare wrote about many themes and had very unique characters to tell us about how people are. One of the most important themes in “Hamlet” is probably the need to seek out revenge and how you accomplished that need. Shakespeare shows us this through the actions of the characters of Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras because every single one of them wants to get revenge for the murder of their father. Even though their goal is the exact same, each one of them accomplishes it in their own way and because of this, Laertes and Fortinbras, serve as foils to Hamlet. Hamlet’s reaction to his father’s murder and his plan for revenge can viewed in two separate ways. One way of Hamlet’s lack of action after learning of his father’s murder is from his desire to find out whether what the ghost was saying was true or not. The other way his lack of action can be viewed as just being put off or delayed, this is because of Hamlet’s continuous actions of “overthinking” the situation. Either way, Hamlet’s plan of action for revenge takes time and it also takes lots of cunning …show more content…
When Fortinbras’ father was killed by King Hamlet, he reacted neither delayed or reckless. Unlike Hamlet’s delayed plan and Laertes’ quick unthoughtful plan, Fortinbras reacted rationally. Fortinbras calmly and carefully makes a plan to avenge his father’s death and reclaim the lands lost from his father’s death. He builds an army and deploys it to march into Denmark. In Act V Scene II, he arrives just in time after all the events had already happened. Fortinbras, who was rational and careful, was the only one of these three characters that survived the play. Shakespeare uses the character of Fortinbras to show us that acting with rational thought rather than on impulsive or with too much thought can have a better result at the