Laertes loses his family because of Hamlet’s actions. His father is killed by him and his sister kills herself because of her grief. Laertes and King Claudius begin to plot Hamlet’s murder, planning to poison him, by drink or wound, whichever comes first. However, the plan backfires on the both of them and Laertes dies from his own blade, but not before saying “The King, the King’s to blame.”
In Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet, the audience finds a docile, manipulated, scolded, victimized young lady named Ophelia. Ophelia is a foil to Hamlet. Plays have foils to help the audience better understand the more important characters in the play. The character of Ophelia is necessary so that the audience will give Hamlet a chance to get over his madness and follow his heart.
One of the most popular plays written during the Elizabethan era told the love story of Hamlet and Ophelia. Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, some people struggle understanding if Hamlet’s love for Ophelia was genuine or if he was just feeling lust. I think that Hamlet was truly in love with Ophelia. Throughout most of the play, Hamlet showed his love for Ophelia in many different ways. Although he did break up with her at one point during the play and said he did not love her, it was obvious throughout the rest of the play that he still did.
To begin with, Ophelia is a character from the Shakespeare classic Hamlet. She is perceived as a young woman who is kind hearted and obedient towards the male characters within the story. These characteristics cause her to be seen as the victim of the male characters who revolve around the story of Hamlet.
No two individuals are alike, regardless of similar upbringing. It is reasonable to assume that even twins brought up in exactly the same environment, sharing the same daily activities, and living practically the same life, will act differently when faced with the same situation. Each individual evolves with his or her own uniqueness, style, and way of life. The audience witnesses this phenomenon in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Lord Hamlet and Laertes experienced similar childhoods, and shared similar family attributes. They were both born into royalty and throughout their lives were treated as such. Hamlet and Laertes were reared with the same forms of schooling, and were taught to abide by the same ethics and morals. Although Hamlet and Laertes
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the stage was used as a way to break the barriers of gender norms. In his creation of Hamlet, Shakespeare uses the voice of Ophelia as a means to battle the gender norms that had been placed on Elizabethan society. A good women was seen as someone that was quiet and submissive. If a man could not control a woman’s tongue, there would be no chance that the man would be able to control her body. Though Ophelia’s character was more than capable of exhibiting reason, the control that her father, Polonius, held over her let Ophelia to the the madness that would claim her life by the end of the play. On the other side of the gender spectrum, Hamlet, a prince that should be have been more than capable of
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, there were many important characters just like Hamlet who show up in more than three-fourths of the play; but there are also characters that don’t necessarily show up as much but still have a strong role. One of the characters that didn’t get as much screen time but was still important was Ophelia. Ophelia was a sister, girlfriend, and daughter that so many people loved. Therefore, Despite the lack of presence of Ophelia, she ultimately played a big role in the lives of a lot of the characters.
Horatio believes that Hamlet is the only one who is capable of stopping the ghost from appearing if the ghost talks to Hamlet. Therefore, Horatio wants to bring the ghost to Hamlet’s attention. Hamlet is upset over the fact that his mother had remarried his father’s brother, Claudius. It bothers Hamlet the most knowing that his mother married his uncle right after his father death, as mentioned that his mother’s tears on her cheeks were not dry yet. Laertes foreshadows to Ophelia that Hamlet’s love for Ophelia may not last due to Hamlet’s attentions. Laertes implies that Hamlet is playing games. Therefore, Laertes tells Ophelia to consider herself as a temporary flirtation. After the death of his father, Hamlet believes that it was best not
It is often questioned who is responsible for the deaths of the characters in famous plays. In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the answer is more complicated than it seems. All of the characters are directly responsible for their own deaths. Ophelia and Laertes, for example, cause their own deaths by their own actions, even though they are for different reasons. It may appear as if several characters in Hamlet die because of someone else’s actions, not their own. This may be the case, but it overlooks that although other people were involved in some of the deaths, it was still ultimately each character’s own fault. The characters are all responsible for their own deaths because of the actions they took.
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. In it, a young, Danish prince struggles with the death of his father and the betrayal of his mother. This struggle is so profound; it shakes its main character Hamlet to the core and brings him to the brink of sanity. Shakespeare uses madness to convey important information throughout the play especially through Hamlet and his love interest, Ophelia. Hamlet does not always appear to be mad, in fact throughout the play his sanity is questioned by the reader and other characters. Whether real or faked, Hamlet and Ophelia’s madness reveal to us more about their characters, opinions and secrets than their regular discourse.
Michael Pennington in “Ophelia: Madness Her Only Safe Haven,” elucidates the character of Ophelia in Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet:
Horatio insists that the girl must be pitied due to the grief of her father’s death. Only to add to the recent chaos, I learn that Laertes is leading a mob of common folk to avenge his father. My king is quick to assure Laertes that he is not responsible for the death of Polonius. Shortly after I had left the company of Laertes and my king, I found myself rushing back to deliver tragic news, Ophelia has drowned in a river due to her grief. I find all of these wild events in addition to Hamlet’s departure, to be completely out of control. The funeral for Ophelia came quickly and I soon found myself walking out to the burial site. As the priest leads the ceremony, Laertes becomes outraged at the fact that the priest is unwilling to give Ophelia a proper Christian burial. Laertes quickly jumps into the grave and is suddenly fighting over Ophelia’s body with Hamlet. The inopportune arrival of Hamlet was confirmation of his
Hardships and sufferings are common in an average person’s life, but enduring a certain amount can push a person past their limits. At times, one's actions can lead to other people's limits being broken resulting in unexpected consequences. Hamlet by William Shakespeare involves two characters named Ophelia and Gertrude who both suffer from Hamlet's verbal and physical abuse; of the two, Ophelia suffers to a greater extent because of her decision to commit suicide. The cruel insults Hamlet addresses Ophelia with hurts her deeply due to them being false, whereas the harsh words Hamlet uses to describe Gertrude with are mostly true. Ophelia gets traumatized from both Hamlet’s sayings and actions, causing her to suffer an incredible amount. Queen Gertrude, who is the mother of Hamlet, is humiliated with abusive language by her son, which causes a particularly large amount of emotional distress on her since these words are coming from her very own child. First, the two suffer major harm from Hamlet due to his insults that cause them to feel worthless and violated. Gertrude becomes extremely offended by everything Hamlet says to her. Ophelia is greatly saddened, but at the same time she is worried about Hamlet. The death of Ophelia’s father causes the devastated daughter to fall into a state of depression, ultimately ending with the young woman taking her own life. On the other hand, the mother of Hamlet does not suffer from her son's torment as much as Ophelia because her death is the result of an accident, not the outcome of tremendous emotional suffering which Ophelia’s death resulted from. Additionally, Ophelia and Gertrude go through emotional suffering due to Hamlet’s verbal insult.
Furthermore, Shakespeare portrays a parallel situation for Laertes just as Fortinbras and Hamlet, after the death of Polonius. Laertes is a young Danish lord and with his sister Ophelia, he is the son of Polonius. The death of Polonius comes unexpectedly and accidentally; however, its significance comes more considerably than that to Hamlet and Laertes. The contrasts between their response from the Polonius’ death gives another example of Hamlet’s femininity just as that of Fortinbras and Hamlet. During his attempts to spy on Hamlet so that he can have advanced position than Gertrude while discussing his objectives, Polonius hides himself behind the arras in Gertrude’s room. It is where Hamlet is having tough conversations with his mother because