Death can be considered one of the main themes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which is quite natural for a tragedy. Characters of the heroes manifest themselves most directly in their attitude towards death. In the present essay, it will be shown how Hamlet’s and Laertes’s views on the issue reveal some motives of their behavior which could not be fully understood without such a context. At first, it is advisable to discuss how they both react to Ophelia’s decease. During the burial scene, Laertes is outraged at the fact that his sister is denied a Christian funeral because of her alleged suicide. He wants to be buried alive in her grave and curses Hamlet, deeming him the cause of her death. Grief-stricken, he exclaims: “O, treble woe / Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, / Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense / Deprived thee of!” Although being offended by these words, Hamlet tells Laertes about his love to and grief for Ophelia. Nevertheless, nobody wants to hear him, and it comes to a fight between the two. Some commentators suggest that reconciliation between the two was possible after Polonius’s death, but Ophelia’s demise turned them into mortal enemies with no chance for the conflict to end peacefully. The tragedy that could have united them in grief for the deceased escalates the confrontation and makes new deaths almost inevitable. As is known, Laertes and Hamlet kill one another during a fencing match, which was organized by Claudius, who was eager to get rid of his too capable nephew. After the fight, Laertes tells Hamlet about the king’s plot and apologizes for his own participating in it. The two exchange forgiveness, and Claudius is killed by Hamlet, who thus manages to avenge the death of his father. Attentive readers will notice that Hamlet dies with dignity and does not forget to make some arrangements concerning the future fate of Denmark. For example, he prevents Horatio from committing suicide, because someone must stay alive to recount the sequence of events to “the yet unknowing world”. Secondly, he names Prince Fortinbras of Norway as one of his possible heirs, in order not to let Denmark slide into a civil war over the succession to the throne. His final words are as follows: “But I do prophesy the election lights / On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice”.
Laertes and Hamlet both face death heroically. The former condemns Claudius’s meanness, although he is involved in the plot against Hamlet himself. The latter is unselfish enough to think about his kingdom and letting contemporaries and posterity know the truth. Standing on the verge of death, they both care about other people. One may think that they manage to face death with dignity, because their lives were full of meaning. Hamlet strove to take revenge on his treacherous uncle, and Laertes was bent on killing the person whom he considered guilty of his relatives’ death. The motives of the main characters are destructive enough, …