![laertes hamlet laertes hamlet](https://static.enotescdn.net/images/covers%2Fhamlet.jpg)
But if his rise to true honor finally redeems him in our eyes, his false honor has destroyed his life. Recognizing his dishonor too late and admitting that he is “justly killed with mine own treachery,” Laertes finally rises to the true honor of admitting his fault to Hamlet, informing him of Claudius’ designs, and then, in a tragically belated reconciliation withHamlet, offering him an exchange of forgiveness.
![laertes hamlet laertes hamlet](https://queenpbtalksenglish.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/still-of-kenneth-branagh-and-michael-maloney-in-hamlet.jpg)
Laertes’ false sense of honor and pride override his better instincts to the fatal harm of both. Had Laertes acted upon the honorable promptings of his conscience, he would have avoided his own death and, by allying himself with Hamlet, would have won the gratitude of the future King. Saying that “I do receive your offered love like love, / And will not wrong it,” he goes and chooses the lethally sharp and poisoned weapon. In this concern for outward honor he further dishonors himself by the false statement that he will act honorably with Hamlet.
![laertes hamlet laertes hamlet](https://study.com/cimages/multimages/16/laertes.jpg)
Laertes is so concerned about his formal and outward “terms of honor” that he cannot permit his natural feelings to rule his will. Though the sight of his sister’s madness brings him to a moment of true grief, he is still primarily enraged by his father’s “obscure funeral – / No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o’er his bones, / No noble rite nor formal ostentation.” To vindicate his honor, Laertes stoops to a most dishonorable practice. More concerned with the outward signs of gentility than with any inner refinement of spirit, Laertes has well observed his father’s advice to be concerned with appearances since “the apparel oft proclaims the man.”As unconcerned for the order of society as he is for his own salvation, he would rather “dare damnation” than leave his father’s honor and his own besmirched. But if his father allows him these liberties, it is that he may better approximate the manner of a so – called gentleman. Like his father, Laertes apparently preaches a morality he does not practice and fully believes in a double standard of behavior for the sexes. LeartesLaertes is a young man whose good instincts have been somewhat obscured by the concern with superficial appearances which he has imbibed from his father, Polonius. Like Hamlet, Sr., Fortinbras is an empire builder who desires only to fight for glory and so, in an ironic way, he is fitted by character to inherit the kingdom of Hamlet, Sr. Desiring to win honor through the sword, he cares not that the prize of his glory is worthless or that he will sacrifice thousands of lives and much wealth for this hollow victory. If he had been deprived of the throne of his father, he would try to conquer a kingdom of his own in which, as he later tells Horatio, he has “some rights of memory.”Fortinbras is not willing to put an end to his military adventures.
![laertes hamlet laertes hamlet](https://cdn.quotesgram.com/img/5/49/903197031-1330491702.jpg)
But Fortinbras was not prepared to accept his constitutional dispossession so easily. This shows that in the world of the play it was not unusual for brothers to late kings to be elected to the throne over the pretensions of their younger nephews. Though son of the late King of Norway, the crown of Norway had gone to his uncle, just as the crown of Denmark had gone to Hamlet’s uncle. All three of these characters had some reason to avenge some circumstance in their life, but they all had a very different way of conquering the object of their hatred.įortinbrasFortinbras had levied an army to attack and conquer Denmark. Hamlet, Laertes and FortinbrasHamlet, Fortinbras and Leartes are all very different people with different lives, but as these men interact in the play we learn that there are many circumstances surrounding them that mysteriously connect them.