Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras are all reflections on each other Essay

The knowledge base is a looking glass. This synecdochic statement of nineteenth century English novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray, encapsulates the idea of locutions of ourselves being observable individually(prenominal) around us in divergent aspects of the gentlemans gentleman. Whether in the run-in, scrapions or attitudes of differents, we tend to know roughthing of ourselves.Shakespe ar employs this proposition of contemplation in his works such as in Antony and Cleopatra where Caesar recognises that Antony is, as stated by Maecenas, a spacious mirror set before him and this resounds to Caesar two the dimensions of he and his fellow triumvir, leading Caesar to the realisation that the world is not big enough for the two of them as can be interpreted from we could not conk together/ In the consentient world. Reflection is and so a recurrent motif in Shakespeares works, and is a key issue which arises in the subscriber line of the play small town. cross roads is a play which involves a lot of reflection and mirroring in various ways. whizz of the most notable is the play within a play or The Moexercisingtrap which mirrors the relationship great power critical point had with Gertrude as tumesce as the room in which tycoon settlement was mop uped. hamlet himself-importance suss outs execution of instrument as a way of reflecting inner putridness holding the mirror up to nature. The idea of mirroring or doubling can further be seen in Shakespeares use of literary techniques like hendiadys such as in crossroadss brooding To be, or not to be soliloquy where he theorises, slings and arrows of forthrageous fortune and whips and scorns of cartridge clip or posterior in the play where Hamlet says to Horatio, Fortunes buffets and rewards. Shakespeares use of hendiadys suffices to place emphasis on the message he is trying to get crossways as the words mirror each other and act as a sort of parallelism, creating a balance i n the phrases. But even more than notable in the play with regards reflection, is the manner in which the characters of Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras reflect on each other. These three characters are all young men who, at some point, defy mazed or will recur a father.Hamlet has returned to Denmark from school in Wittenberg to bewail his fathers ending and is so such(prenominal) in grief that he says, How weary, stale, flat and unsatisfying/ Seem to me all the uses of this world The use of lists and exclamation marks emphasises the extent of his grief and make us sym racecourseise with him. Young Fortinbras has excessively lost his father, Fortinbras, as we come to know from Horatios speech that King Hamlet Did slay this Fortinbras. Laertes, in the course of the play, as well returns from France to Denmark to find that his father, Polonius has been killed.They thus reflect on themselves in that they have all lost their fathers, exclusively moreover in that they all see k to punish the deaths of their fathers. Hamlet is charged by the ghost of King Hamlet to Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder The exclamation mark and use of striking adjectives cozy up that this is an order, a duty which Hamlet has to carry out(a), and he expresses his feelings about this in the heroic couplet, The time is out of joint O cursi d spite,/ That ever I was born to set it right. Fortinbras, likewise, is seeking to avenge the death of his father, King Fortinbras of Norway by regaining the land lost by his father in war, and waging war on Denmark. When Hamlet sees Fortinbras leading his army with Denmark to Poland, he draws parallels between his have got and that of Fortinbras. Similarly, Laertes, on finding out about his fathers death, declares, Ill be revenged/ Most throughly for my father. Hamlet recognises the similarity between his flummox and that of Laertes and states later on in the play, For by the characterisation of my cause, I see the portraitu re of his. However, it is open to commentary whether or not Hamlet was referring to revenge as his cause, for as Philip Edward argues, Harold Jenkins points out that Hamlet barely does not recognise himself as a proposed victim of Laertes revenge, and thus Hamlet simply meant, when he make that statement, that as a son grieving his father, he should have realised that grief makes one act strangely. Nevertheless, Hamlet does recognise an aspect of himself reflected in that of Laertes. Thus, Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras all seek to avenge the death of their fathers, but they each work towards this end with varying methods.Whilst Hamlet is the vacillating, indecisive one searching for proof and taking his time, and Fortinbras is the sharp but quick-acting, resolute one, Laertes is the more aggressive ordinary revenge hero. Hamlet spends so much time dithering and searching for proof that the ghost has to reappear to whet thy almost blunted purpose. The use of words associated with knives or daggers, that is whet and blunted, remind us that Hamlets purpose is to kill to avenge his father, earlier than his inactivity.Hamlet says of Fortinbras, on the other hand, that his tang is with divine ambition puffed and thus he is able to lead the Norwegian army to maintain over a little patch of acres. Laertes brutal, aggressive approach can be seen not only in the way he breaks into the danish pastry palace to confront Claudius over his fathers death but also how he says of Hamlet that he would cut his pharynx Ithchurch The aggressiveness in this statement is underline by the use of initial rhyme in throat and thchurch.Thus, their varying methods are comparable, so that we can identify from one to the other the best-loved path or more successful path to have taken. Whilst Laertes and Fortinbras are thus more regular(prenominal) Aristotelian tragic heroes, in that they have consistence as once their personality and motivations are established, they contin ue throughout the play. Hamlet, on the other hand, falls rook of this as he dithers and almost loses sight of his goal. This sheds set out on a reason for which Shakespeare appears to have make use of reflections in his work- that of revealing shortcomings.Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras reflect on each other in such a manner that they highlight the shortcomings of each other. As Shakespeare states in his Sonnet 77, Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear. The whole idea is that our reflections make us more certain of our flaws, and this can be seen where Hamlet, having seen Fortinbras march his army through Denmark, says, How all occasions do inform against me,/ And acantha my muted revenge He is reminded, by the reflection of his cause in that of Fortinbras, that whilst Fortinbras is active and resolute, his revenge is dull.This idea of reflections showing our flaws or shortcomings is also use by Shakespeare in Richard 11 where the deposed king hopes to see his sorro ws etched in his reflection and states, Give me that glass, and therein will I read. /No deeper wrinkles yet? The alliteration in give and glass as well as the use of rhetorical question help to highlight the kings desperation to see his sorrows in his reflection. Reflections also act, in Shakespeare, as a trigger or a call to action.When Hamlet sees Fortinbras and his army, it spurs his revenge so that he is led to say in a rhyming couplet, Oh from this time forth,/ My thoughts be bloody or be naught worth. His use of the graphic adjective bloody emphasises his resolution and is rather reminiscent of the sort of decisiveness that we would expect from a typical revenge hero. Furthermore, when Hamlet sees the portraiture of Laertes cause in the image of his, he is led to distress his tumultuous disturbance to Laertes at their battle at Ophelias grave and to court Laertes favours.Ophelia, in the course of the play, refers to Hamlet metaphorically as The glass of fashion. He app ears to have been the reflection of what noblemen should be the one to be emulated. each noblemen in Hamlets Denmark, like the decree of Shakespeares England, were expected to remark and imitate the courtesy of the prince. Thus, we can understand why Hamlet is, in the words of Claudius, loved of the distracted multitude and why Fortinbras speaks of him so highly.Nevertheless, following his act of madness and outburst at Ophelia, Ophelia mourns that this noble mind, this glass of fashion, is quite, quite raze The repetition of quite relays to us how greatly Hamlet has changed from the reflection of nobility that he used to be. It is also interesting to note that Hamlet sees a reflection of his cause in that of Fortinbras and Laertes towards the end of the play in a form of anagnorisis. However, at the start of the play, he seems deeply sceptical about the ability of anything to reflect him truly.According to Philippa Kelly, he mocks verbal and physical screening as having the i ncapacity to name me truly. In his mocking summation of Laertes even in the net act of the play, he appears sure that nothing and no one could reflect Laertes he his semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more. His argument is that words fall short of describing Laertes greatness, but earlier on we know that he has stated that he sees a reflection of his cause in that of Laertes.Thus, although Hamlet, ab initio, comes across as one who feels that nothing can reflect him, nothing can denote him truly or body him forth as would the dissection of his organs, he comes to realise that reflections are indeed everyplace as can be interpreted from William Thackerays statement, The world is a looking glass. In the actions, words, causes and attitudes of others, especially Laertes and Fortinbras, he sees a reflection of his own self and is, from these reflections, made aware of his shortcomings and spurred to action in at long last avenging the death of his father.