Who He Is
Laertes is the son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia. He leaves for France with the king’s permission and, when his father’s death brings him back, gathers a crowd that acclaims him king and invades the castle, and is then drawn by Claudius into a duel with the poisoned sword. He is the son who also wants to avenge his father, and the play makes him a mirror of Hamlet.
Trajectory
In scene 2 of Act I, Claudius lets him return to France. In scene 3 of Act I, before boarding, he warns Ophelia that the prince’s love is passing and that an heir does not choose for himself, and receives from his father the list of precepts of conduct. In scene 1 of Act II, he is the object of Polonius’s surveillance, who sends Reynaldo to investigate him in Paris.
In scene 5 of Act IV, he breaks into the castle at the head of a crowd that acclaims him king and demands his father. The king calms him, but Ophelia reappears with flowers and songs and Laertes, shaken, agrees to hear him. In scene 7 of Act IV, he lets himself be led by Claudius into the plan for the duel: an unprotected sword, to which he himself adds the poison for the tip.
In scene 1 of Act V, in the graveyard, he leaps into Ophelia’s grave, and Hamlet reveals himself and jumps in after him; the two fight until they are separated. In scene 2 of Act V, he wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword and, the weapons exchanged, is wounded by his own blade. He accuses the king before he dies.
Relationships
- Polonius: the father, whose counsel he receives on departure and whose death brings him back.
- Ophelia: the sister, whom he advises to keep away from Hamlet and whom he finds mad.
- Hamlet: the prince who killed his father, whom he wounds, and by whom he is wounded, in the duel.
- Claudius: the king who calms him, arms him and uses him.
- Gertrude: the queen who tells him of his sister’s drowning.