Laertes's Revenge

In a movie, actors use their eye contacts, body movements, facial expressions, and intonations to achieve a specific goal. For example, when a character keeps looking around, shaking his body, sweat appears on his forehead, his teeth is chattering or he is biting nails, this character is scared or nervous. In the movie Hamlet, 1996 version, When Laertes runs to Gertrude and Claudius, he’s goal is to kill get revenge and express his anger. In the movie, he successfully made it.

In that scene, Laertes with his men runs through the lobby, shouting, pushing each other, and waving their weapons. As the script has said:” Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds.” For now, Laertes’s aim was not only get revenge but also be the king. His men defeated King’s soldiers and “ they cry ‘Choose we Laertes shall be king.” This scene is not using Laertes him self to achieve his goal, but using side description of his men and the words of a maid. Men’s body movements, and maid’s tremulous voice tells audience how creep Laertes’s men are and how angry Laertes is.

 Then, Laertes and his men broke the door and he shouted:” Where is this king?” His facial expression is exaggerated and his large opened mouth made his face knitted together. He glared at the King and Queen with anger, largely opened his eyes. The King and Queen scared and run toward their chair which is also a side description. When other people got out of the lobby, there were only Laertes, King and Queen. He was saying: ”O thou vile king, Give me My father!” when he hold his sword and rushed at the king. From this part there are no more side description, only Laertes him self using his ferocious face, his loud voice and his big body movement can show his anger to the King. His script shows his anger as well: ” That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard, cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow of my true mother.” In his script, it shows how firm he was to revenge for his father.

Laertes’s motivation is the death of his father. He thought the reason his father died was because of the king. However, the king changed their topic to Hamlet and told Laertes the true murder is Hamlet. At that moment, Laertes was so angry and didn’t even think about the reason why Hamlet killed his father so he believed what king said. If Laertes could calm down and think deeply, he could know that the main factor caused his father’s death was the king. But he didn’t, so Laertes was used by the king as a tool to kill Hamlet.

To see this play in general, Laertes’s thoughtless caused his death later. This scene also shows how cunning the king is. This scene can also be thought as a connection of the following scene, which is Ophelia went mad and was saw by Laertes. He anger became even larger. Indeed, he got revenge---Hamlet died, King also died, as well as him self. Every scene is important to this great tragedy.