PRESENTATION OF LAERTES AND CRITICAL VIEWPOINTS Flashcards
(17 cards)
How is Laertes represented? (summary)
- Laertes a figure of Rennaissance masculinity, family honour
- Laertes as a figure of the blood-thirsty avenger
- Laertes as the corrupted courtier
- A tragic hero
Laertes as a figure of renaissance masculinity and family honour
‘Your chaste treasure open to his unmastered importunity fear it, Ophelia, fear it’
‘I’ll revenge most throughly for my father’
Your chaste treasure open…
To his unmastered importunity
Surrogate patriarch role, bound by a sense of familal duty, keenly aware of the dangers posed by Hamlet’s fluctuating affections and guides her
I’ll be revenged…
most thoroughly for my father
His obsession with Polonius’s legacy could reflect fear of emasculation—without a father, his social status crumbles.
Blood thirsty avenger
‘To cut his throat in Church’
‘To hell allegiance, vows to the blackest devil’
’ I am lost in it, my lord, it warms the very sickness of my heart that i shalll love and tell him to his teeth/ thus didst thou
To cut his throat in church
Desire to murder Hamlet in a viscerally intimate way, emphasizing his hatred.
Symbolism of “throat” suggests that Laertes seeks to silent Hamlet forever, removing any possibility of Hamlet defending himself and thus eliminating the chance of guilt or doubt.
The noun ‘Church” is associated with sacred and divine spaces, thus Laertes shows a disregard for religious law and divine justice in favor of personal vengeance
To hell with vengence..
vows to the blackest devil
In Renaissance Europe, allegiance to the king was sacrosanct—yet Laertes prioritizes blood ties over state loyalty. Reflects Machiavellian pragmatism: Family > monarchy. His invocation of “the blackest devil” aligns with Elizabethan revenge tragedy tropes where vengeance is both sacred and damnable.
Iam lost in it, my lord, but…
But let him come. / It warms the very sickness in my heart / That I shall live and tell him to his teeth / ‘Thus didst thou
Tell him to his teeth” evokes dueling culture, where public shaming was as vital as violence. His “sickness in my heart” suggests obsessive, almost pathological rage—unlike Hamlet’s philosophical melancholy.Humoral Theory: “Sickness in my heart” aligns with choleric humor (excess bile = rage), a stereotype of reckless young men.
Laertes comparison between Hamlet and Fortinbras
Fortinbras, who channels vengeance into conquest (a “legal” outlet), while Laertes embodies personal, chaotic retribution.
Hamlet debates moral consequences (“to be or not to be”); Laertes rejects all constraints.
Corrupted courtier
“I am justly killed with mine own treachery.
“Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet”
I am justly killed..
with mine own treachery
Laertes embodies the self-destructive nature of vengeance—his treachery literally kills him.His confession mirrors last rites—a dying man seeking absolution (notably, Shakespeare’s audience was post-Reformation but still valued penitence).His death critiques Machiavellian pragmatism—treachery fails, ethics matter.
Context?
Elizabethan Honor Culture: His rage over Polonius’s “obscure funeral” (Act IV, Scene 5) reflects aristocratic codes of vengeance.
Filial Piety: In Renaissance Europe, a son’s duty to avenge his father was both expected and celebrated—Laertes fulfills this, unlike Hamlet.
Revenge Tragedy Conventions: His arc follows the genre’s typical cycle of bloodshed and self-destruction.
Political Intrigue: His return with a mob (Act IV, Scene 5) hints at threats to monarchy, mirroring fears of civil unrest in Shakespeare’s England.
Psycho- analysis
Identification with the Id:
Laertes’s immediate reaction to Polonius’s death is to seek revenge, demonstrating a primal, instinctive drive to restore the balance he perceives as disrupted.
Prosser- on Laertes identity
He denies his conscience, his King, and his God.
Hall on action, and revenge
Laertes and Fortinbras are both representatives of action
