Comparison of Hamlet’s Response to Grief Versus the Responses of Ophelia and Laertes (Essay Sample)

The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare consists of many parallel plots, but that which is most prevalent to the theme is the comparison of Hamlet’s response to grief versus the responses of Ophelia and Laertes. When Hamlet’s father is killed, Hamlet reacts with both a quest for revenge and madness, the extent of the latter being still debated by scholars today. However, when Hamlet himself kills Ophelia and Laertes’ father, Laertes responds with revenge and Ophelia responds with madness. By demonstrating these parallel plots, Shakespeare shows that vengeance and insanity are tied together as an unhealthy response to grief. 

When Hamlet’s father dies, Hamlet is pushed to a quest for revenge when his father’s ghost informs him that his brother, King Claudius, is in fact the one who killed him. He takes a vow, repeating his father’s wording in his quest to remember him, to avenge his father’s death by killing his uncle: “O all you Host of Heaven! O earth! What else? / And shall I couple hell? … Now to my word. / It is ‘Adieu, Adieu, remember me.’ / I have sworn’t” (I.v.97-98a, 115b-117). By contrast, when Laertes receives the news that Hamlet killed his father Polonius, he says the following: “How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with. / To hell, allegiance! Vows to the blackest devil!” (IV.v.141-142). Both men, upon realizing their grief, make a vow to the devil that they will avenge their father. 

By demonstrating this comparison, Shakespeare is showing the dangers of a mindset of revenge. Hamlet goes about his revenge in a more roundabout way than Laertes, pretending to be mad in order to gain leverage to kill his uncle. Laertes, on the other hand, decides on a direct path of revenge, especially once his sister’s own tragic fate is thrown in the balance. 

Likewise, both Hamlet and Ophelia go mad upon the effects of their respective fathers’ deaths. Though the extent to which Hamlet is actually mad and to which he is simply pretending is widely debated even to this day, it is easy to determine that Hamlet loses more of his sanity over the course of the play. A good example of this is after he kills Polonius. He is in the room with his mother, the queen, who cannot see her husband’s ghost, though Hamlet can. The following exchange occurs: “[Hamlet:] Save me and hover o’er me with your wings, / You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure? [Queen:] Alas, he’s mad” (III.iv.115-117). When Hamlet asks the ghost of his father how he should continue to go about his revenge, his mother cannot see the ghost and therefore assumes he is mad. This is also symbolic of Shakespeare’s point, as Hamlet’s thirst for revenge is driving him mad. 

But Ophelia, on the other hand, goes mad simply because of the grief. Upon seeing his sister’s sorry state, Laertes says: “By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight / Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May! / Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! / O heavens, is’t possible a young maid’s wits / Should be as mortal as an old man’s life?” (IV.v.172-176). This comparison to Hamlet’s situation drives Shakespeare’s point even more. Laertes’ quest for revenge is enunciated by his protection over his sister and his wish to overcome her madness with his vengeance on the murderer. Whereas in Hamlet’s situation, his madness is enunciated by his own quest for revenge. 

Comparing these two plots, it is easy to see that Shakespeare is demonstrating the correlation between vengeance and insanity. Though in one situation, another’s insanity leads to revenge and in the other, one’s own revenge leads to one’s insanity, these two are tied together throughout the entire plot of this play. Shakespeare is demonstrating the dangers of both of these reactions, especially when they are combined in one person. Hamlet’s one desire for revenge leads to his insanity that ends up in the murder of five people, six if Ophelia is included, since her own madness and suicide came from Hamlet’s murder of her father. Though vengeance and insanity are among many of the themes presented in Hamlet, the parallel plots illustrate these themes very clearly. This tool in literature shows two similar situations to emphasize what the reader should take away from reading this work, and Hamlet is a perfect example.