Compare and contrast Hamlet and Laertes reactions to their father’s death.
...er’s death, but he takes a long time in doing so. Hamlet has a fascination with afterlife and how the result of his actions will be. We see this when Claudius is praying and Hamlet has the chance to kill him, but decides not to as it was believed in those times that Claudius would have gone to heaven as he was praying at the time of his death. Hamlet insisted that Claudius went to hell so decided to wait for another moment. From this we can see that Hamlet thinks before he acts, which is ultimately his downfall in the end, as he waits too long and ends up dying as a result. Similarities Both men admired their father’s deeply and were brought up under the same royal family of Denmark. Their father’s were both murdered Laertes was developed in the play specifically to create a contrast for Hamlet, and therefor there were many more differences than similarities. This would have been done so that the differences would highlight the hero’s, Hamlet’s, characteristics. However, in the final scene we have a similarity in how both characters are viewed by the viewer. In the end both characters die, but we see in some of the last words that Laerte’s says in the play, that he too blames the king. ‘The King, the King’s to blame.’ We also see both characters in action in this scene as Hamlet finally gets down to following through with his intentions. However, Hamlet’s revenge is only achieved when he is told that he has been poisoned and his time is running out, nevertheless he still finally gets around to murdering Claudius. We also view both Laertes and Hamlet in the final scene as victims and with sympathy, as they are both very noble. A good example of this is just before Laerte’s dies and he says ‘Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me!’ Hamlet then accepts this and relieves Laertes of any guilt he had. This is also a good contrast against the king as we see the king die without any forgiveness. Laertes When Laertes finds out about his father’s death he certainl...