It’s hard to find a similar character or situation reminds
me about anyone in this act. It’s an act including too many information. The
conspiracy of Claudius; the survival of Hamlet; the death of Ophelia and the
idea Claudius told Laertes that it’s Hamlet whom should be blamed for the death
of Polonius, these are the climax of the play.
Laertes caught my attention in this act. He is an innocent
man who is fooled by Claudius. It’s totally understandable that he wants to
revenge to Hamlet for the death of Polonius. After all, Hamlet did kill his
dad. And then, he receives the news of the death of his sister. Laertes is
totally alone. The conflict between him and Hamlet is raised by Claudius. He
fits the concept of a classical tragic hero.
I can see two big subjects in this act. One is revenge of
Laertes the other is deception of Claudius. Claudius’ deception is the cause of
the revenge of Laertes. So I think deception is a major one. It’s a big
contrary between Claudius’ second deception of trying to kill Hamlet after he
was feeling guilty about killing old Hamlet in act 3. But his deception is also
the cause of the death of himself at the end.
Yeah, i also felt that Leartes was made almost into a pawn for Claudius in the way the King seemed to egg him onto killing Hamlet
ReplyDeleteI admit, I was overwhelmed with everything that was going on at once as well, but then again it takes awhile to finally understand it. That's Shakespeare's style. I totally agree with your statement about Laertes being a pawn for Claudius, but hes smart enough to realize what he was doing in the end was wrong.
ReplyDeleteYes Claudius is very manipulative, and I think it's b/c he holds so much power that people are blindsided by it, and that's how he got Laertes to go along with his plan to kill Hamlet. Claudius's character is very gifted with his usage of words. That's probably how he got Gertrude to marry him and into is bed. He is very slick and sly as a lot of men are.
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