Laertes’ Death
“Hamlet” is a play filled with death. However, many of the characters in the play are responsible for their own deaths. A good example of this is Laertes. Laertes is the oldest child of Polonius and brother of Ophelia. He was a scholar who seeks Claudius’ permission to study in Wittenburg. Laertes was an excellent swordsman and seems to have been respected by the Danes because he was able to lead a rebellious group into the court of Claudius. Despite all this, Laertes was turned into a dupe by Claudius and was responsible for his own death.
Claudius dupes Laertes by convincing him that Hamlet was responsible for his father’s death and that Hamlet was their common enemy:
Now must your conscience my acquittance seal.
And you must put me in your heart for a friend,
Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he which hath your noble father slain,
pursued my life.
[Act 4 Sc. 7 Lines 1-5]
Claudius cleverly preys on Laertes’ sorrow over his father’s death. Claudius tells him that if he really loves his father, he will revenge him :
Laertes, was your father dear to you?
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
As face without heart?
[Act 4 Sc. 7 Lines 107-109]
Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet should be killed and his desire for revenge should have no boundaries.
No place indeed should murder sanctuarize;
Revenge should have no bounds.
Claudius is clearly a clever politician and manipulator of people and he skilfully turns Laertes’ sorrow and anger to his own purposes.
At the beginning of the duel Hamlet, apologises to Laertes for killing Polonius and tries to explain that he was not himself. Laertes could have forgiven Hamlet, but did not because of anger and rage.
Give me your pardon, sir; I have done you wrong;
But pardon, as you are a gentleman.
This presence knows, and you must needs have heard,
How I am punish’d with a sore distraction.
[Act 5 Sc. 2 Lines 216-221]
Laertes refuses the apology and nurses his hatred of Hamlet.
I am satisfied in nature,
Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge: but in my terms of honour
I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder master, of known honour,
I have a voice and precedent of peace ,
To keep my name ungored. But till that time,
I do receive your offer’d love like love
And will this not wrong it.
[Act 5 Sc. 2 Lines 235-243]
In the duel that followed, Laertes was trying to kill Hamlet with the poison sword. Somehow in the struggle, Hamlet picked up the poison sword and struck Laertes. Laertes was the cause of his own death because of the mix up with the swords. He wouldn’t have been killed, if he didn’t put the poison on his sword.
Laertes should have been smarter; he should have fought Hamlet honestly. Instead, he let Claudius talk him into treachery. Laertes was angry and upset because of the deaths of both his sister and father and Claudius found it easy to talk him into killing Hamlet.
Hamlet's Obsession With Death
From the beginning of the play, Hamlet has an almost adolescent fascination with death. Despite being warned by his friends that following the ghost was a bad idea, Hamlet’s obsession with death was so great that he was prepared to risk all to follow.
Later, Hamlet organised a play which portrayed the truth about the death of his father as a strategy to forces King Claudius to reveal his guilt. The play showed how the rightful king was poisoned and killed by his own brother; the reaction of King Claudius was all Hamlet required to seek revenge upon him for this murder.
While he is struggling with the truth about his father’s death, Hamlet also is struggling with thought of suicide. The “To be or not to be” soliloquy shows how his obsession with death turned him on himself to the point where he is considering taking his own life.
As the horrors mount up, Hamlet seems to descend from pretending madness to really being mad. After the killing of Polonius, Hamlet refers to moving Polonius’ body as ‘lugging the guts’. Later, Hamlet is questioned about the death and the whereabouts of the body. Hamlet’s answers seem to reveal an extremely morbid state of mind. Hamlet exclaimed how once the body dies it goes through a cycle where it is eaten by worms, these worms are used to get food for another person therefore, that person digests the dead body.
“Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic
worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king
and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but one table:
that’s the end.” (Act 4, Scene 3 Lines 20-26)
When Hamlet was sent to England, he carefully exchanged the letter that accompanied Guildenstern and Rosencrantz and the result was these men going to their death because of Hamlet’s clever exchange. By this point, Hamlet seems to be hardened towards death. When he explains how he arranged their deaths in Act V, Scene II, Hamlet tells Horatio that they got in the way.
Finally, the graveyard scene shows how Hamlet views death and that he fears how no matter who you were or what you did that someday you too, will be at one with the earth and dirt only to become decayed, fed upon and then nothing.
“No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough and
likelihood to lead it; as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
Alexander returned into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam:
and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop at a
beer-barrel?” (Act 5, Scene 1 Lines 201-206)
Hamlet has completed his transformation from unhappy young man to hardened killer. He has no hope and despite Horatio’s praise, by this time he would not have made a good king.
Claudius’s death
Claudius was responsible for his own death and many others. I think the saying, “live by the sword, and die by the sword,” applies to Claudius. Claudius’ greed and desire for power caused his problems.
First Claudius killed the king (his brother) and won Gertrude’s love. Then Claudius became king and enjoyed a life of luxury and excess.
The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels;
And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.
(Act I Sc. IV, Lines 8-12)
Claudius suffered from too high an opinion of his own abilities. He thought that he could get away with anything. He planned a duel in which Hamlet and Laertes were to fight. The King poisoned a drink which was meant for Hamlet and he also had Laertes poison his sword. However, Hamlet refused the drink and instead the queen drank it and died. Laertes who had poisoned his sword for Hamlet was cut and died also. Claudius’ clever plan had come completely unravelled.
Once everyone saw Claudius for the person he was. Laertes blames it all on Claudius.
the king, the king’s to blame.
(Act V Sc. II, Line 331)
Hamlet finally carried out his revenge for his father and sliced the Claudius’ throat with the poisoned sword and poured the poisoned drink down his throat. In a way, you could say Hamlet gave the king a taste of his own medicine.