Father-son relationships in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Hamlet

The play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare contains a rich diversity of issues and relationships, some of the greatest of which concern those between father and son. These relationships, most notably those between Hamlet and the late King Hamlet, Fortinbras and Old Fortinbras, and Polonius and Laertes, demonstrate a number of significant, unique characteristics as well as several themes that are both timeless and universal.

The first evidence of father/son conversation occurs when the Ghost appears to Hamlet in Act One Scene V. The father's spirit imparts essential information to Hamlet about the circumstances of his treacherous murder at his brother's hands, which in turn precipitates Hamlet's long agonising and plotting. Despite the initial dramatic impact of Hamlet being addressed by a ghost, the conversation reveals that the relationship is effectively typical, in that the father enlightens and guides his son. However, it is also exemplary and exceptional in that the father chooses his son as his confidant, with a trust that extends beyond the grave and transcends death. The closeness of the relationship between Hamlet and his father also has an essential dramatic function. Hamlet's love leads him to swear absolute loyalty to his father's Ghost, thereby ensuring that he becomes the late King Hamlet's agent on earth for justice:

And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain."

Act I, Scene V, 102-3

The absence of King Hamlet is, however, immediately problematic for his son. Firstly, Hamlet regards himself as, and is presented as, an incomplete man, almost another half of the dead king. He is often referred to as "youth" in the early Acts, and is socially regarded as a son above all else. It has also been suggested that the manifestation of King Hamlet's ghost is the result of Hamlet's own grief. This is an interesting perspective, as it implies that the internal workings of the son are overwhelming and that their bond is strong enough to change the fate of a nation. Furthermore, in constitutional terms Hamlet is left without a role: he is prince to the late King, yet has not succeeded him due to Gertrude's remarriage to Claudius. As such Hamlet has already been denied one aspect of completing the destiny that he believed was his to fulfil. This combined sense of disenfranchisement and displacement grows exponentially when he learns of the murder behind King Hamlet's death, developing further into feelings of worthlessness and guilt. By Act II, Scene i, he is frustrated and ashamed that he cannot act directly against Claudius:

Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,

That I, the son of a dear father murder'd

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,

Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words."

Act I, Scene i, 95-104

This prince is also acting under a sense of moral obligation to restore his father's kingdom and right the wrongs that he believes have been done to it. Fortinbras does not address the audience directly until Act V, where he utters the final lines of the play. Upon witnessing the slaughter that has occurred, he is moved, yet remains noble; his character is essentially symbolic of the direct and dutiful behaviour of an heir:

For me, with sorrow I embrace my future."

Act V, Scene ii, 380

His command that Hamlet's corpse should be borne "like a soldier" is apt: sons, princes and heirs were obliged to fight for the rights and concerns of their fathers and in doing so they often had to display the courage of a soldier.

It must be remembered that Old Fortinbras was killed by the late King Hamlet and that they were essentially enemies. This is of great significance, because far from being opposites, the two bereaved princes are shown to be exactly the same in their priorities. Both feel that their father's kingdoms have been wronged, both are prepared to make any sacrifice necessary to avenge their father's deaths, both are loyal to the end. In this manner, by making to warring father/son teams so similar, Shakespeare is emphasising the universal importance of these feelings.

Another interesting and textured father/son relationship is that of Polonius and Laertes. The dynamic of the relationship differs in that Polonius is alive and present on stage, and it is his concerns as a father that are demonstrated before those that Laertes has as a son. In Act I, Scene ii, Polonius famously offers Laertes a long list of good, fatherly advice:

Neither a borrower nor a lender be,"

Act I, Scene ii, 75

This immediately places Laertes, who himself had been advising his sister Ophelia, in context as the more junior character. In Act I, Scene, Polonius soon shows himself to be attentively concerned about his son. Again, in the way he lists off his advice before Laertes departs on a journey, Polonius is shown to be a typical father, imparting wisdom to the son. However, he is soon shown to be interested in Laerte's welfare to the point of deviousness, as he instructs Reynaldo to engage in gossip in order to trace him. He is attempting to control events without Laertes knowledge, thereby asserting his paternal authority.

By Act IV, Scene V the balance is reversed through Polonius's death. Laertes enters bearing arms: like Fortinbras and Hamlet, he is prepared to fight for his father's sake:

Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd

Most thoroughly for my father."

Act IV, Scene V, 132-3

Compounded by Ophelia's madness, Laertes grief and anger becomes so intolerable that, like Hamlet in the first Act, he transforms himself into a vessel for his late father's revenge and awaits further instruction. He receives this from the duplicitous Claudius, who cunningly spurs him on until he vows the death of his friend and father's killer, Hamlet. He finally achieves this revenge in the final Act.

All three characters - Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras - are driven throughout the play by the need to avenge their father's death. It motivates their actions and concerns them to the exclusion of virtually all else, including their education, judgement and personal safety. Hamlet and Laertes die in the throes of achieving vengeance for their fathers. Only the son Fortinbras survives and this is in order to redeem his father's estates. In "Hamlet," the father/son bond is depicted as insoluble, eternal and pivotal to nature and society. The will of the father becomes the destiny of the son: divine, unstoppable, an irrepressible turn of nature's wheel. It is as Hamlet notes in the final Act, Scene ii, lines 10 -11:

There is a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will."