Vasilisa Yaviks is an intelligent search engine. tomorrow is already here

Laertes(English Laertes) - a character in William Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet", the son of Chancellor Polonius, brother of Ophelia. Represents the "classic vigilante type".

Laertes in the plot of the tragedy

The acquaintance with the character, whom one of the courtiers characterizes as “a true gentleman, charming in manner and beautiful in appearance,” takes place in the reception hall of Elsinore Castle. A young man, who arrived in Denmark from France to participate in events on the occasion of the coronation of King Claudius, asks the monarch for permission to return to Paris. Polonius, who is present during the conversation, admits to Claudius that his son, trying to escape from his home, “exhausted his soul.” The king agrees to the trip and admonishes Laertes with the phrase: “Seek happiness!”

.

According to the literary critic Alexander Anikstus, Laertes inherited his father's penchant for moralizing; Saying goodbye to his sister, the hero gives Ophelia a number of instructions - in particular, he asks her to reject Hamlet’s advances, because the Danish prince has no control over his desires: “He is a citizen of his birth, / He does not cut his own piece.” Ophelia in response notes that her brother - “a careless and empty reveler” - does not always correlate his actions with his own edifying speeches.

Evidence that revenge for Laertes is above honor is, according to Anikst, the extraordinary ease with which the hero accepts Claudius’s plan, proposing to kill Hamlet in a sophisticated way - so that “even his mother will not see the intent.” According to the king's idea, during the battle with the prince, the son of Polonius will be offered a rapier with a poisoned blade, while Hamlet will be offered a regular one. However, during the duel the heroes accidentally switch weapons; both are mortally wounded. Before his death, Laertes manages to repent, admit his guilt for the murder of the prince and ask him for forgiveness for what he did: “I myself am punished by my treachery.”

Image of Laertes in Shakespeare's play is fictional. Its characteristics are outlined in this article.

"Hamlet" characterization of Laertes

Laertes- Son and Brother, he is straightforward, energetic, courageous, loves his sister tenderly in his own way, wishes her well and happiness. But judging by how, burdened by home care, Laertes strives to leave Elsinore, it is difficult to believe that he is very attached to his father. However, having heard about his death, Laertes is ready to execute the culprit, be it the king himself, to whom he took the oath of allegiance. He is not interested in the circumstances under which his father died, and whether he was right or wrong. The main thing for him is to take revenge. The viewer understands the state of Laertes, his son, but until he enters into an agreement with the king.

Laertes considers himself an instrument of the king’s plans, not only an avenger, but a defender of the power and life of the first person in the kingdom.

The king invites the prince and Laertes to arrange a friendly duel as a sign of reconciliation. At the same time, he persuades Laertes to smear the rapier with poison. During the duel, Laertes wounds Hamlet (effectively becoming his murderer), but then the opponents accidentally switch rapiers, and Laertes is wounded by his own poisoned blade. Only the proximity of his own death, the consciousness that he himself was a victim of Claudius’s treachery, forces him to tell the truth and reconciles with Hamlet.

Laertes in the plot of the tragedy

The acquaintance with the character, whom one of the courtiers characterizes as “a true gentleman, charming in manner and beautiful in appearance,” takes place in the reception hall of Elsinore Castle. A young man, who arrived in Denmark from France to participate in events on the occasion of the coronation of King Claudius, asks the monarch for permission to return to Paris. Polonius, who is present during the conversation, admits to Claudius that his son, trying to escape from his home, “exhausted his soul.” The king agrees to the trip and admonishes Laertes with the phrase: “Seek happiness!” .

The next appearance of the hero occurs after the death of Polonius, who received a fatal blow from Hamlet’s sword at the moment when the courtier overheard the prince’s conversation with his mother. Laertes does not know the circumstances under which the fatal blow was struck, but is determined to take revenge. Bursting into the Elsinore palace with the rebels, the young man demands that the king return his father to him. Researchers note that in this situation, the ardent and unrestrained young man bears little resemblance to the cautious Polonius, prone to behind-the-scenes intrigues: “He [Laertes] has the traits of a feudal lord who considers himself equal to kings.” His hot temperament is also manifested in other scenes: for example, Laertes is indignant at the lack of due respect for the memory of his father during his burial and threatens the priest conducting the “abbreviated” farewell rite with Ophelia with hellish torments.

Evidence that revenge for Laertes is above honor is, according to Anikst, the extraordinary ease with which the hero accepts Claudius’s plan, proposing to kill Hamlet in a sophisticated way - so that “even his mother will not see the intent.” According to the king's idea, during the battle with the prince, the son of Polonius will be offered a rapier with a poisoned blade, while Hamlet will be offered a regular one. However, during the duel the heroes accidentally switch weapons; both are mortally wounded. Before his death, Laertes manages to repent, admit his guilt for the murder of the prince and ask him for forgiveness for what he did: “I myself am punished by my treachery.”

Theme of revenge. Hamlet and Laertes

According to the literary critic Igor Shaitanov, if Shakespeare had made the main character not Hamlet, but Laertes, the image of the main character would not have needed additional decoding - on the contrary, the central character would have been interpreted outside the poetics of riddles: “Laertes is the right avenger.” Literary critic Ivan Aksyonov described Polonius’s son in exactly the same way, believing that this hero was “all in the palm of his hand.” Considering revenge as one of the main motives of the tragedy, researchers compare the reactions of Hamlet and Laertes to certain events, especially since the heroes are placed in similar situations: both had their fathers killed, which means that it is necessary - in accordance with the concepts of the era - to resolve the issue of retribution for what he did.

If Hamlet, guessing about the king’s involvement in the death of his father, nevertheless considers it necessary to collect irrefutable evidence of his guilt, then Laertes is completely devoid of reflection: he appears in Elsinore with the thought that he must punish Claudius: “And come what may; just for my father / To take revenge as it should.” The prince, even having received confirmation of his suspicions, is in no hurry to punish. The poet Goethe saw his slowness as a combination of “strong intellect and weak will,” while the writer and critic Karl Werder explained Hamlet’s inaction by the lack of favorable circumstances. Against the background of Hamlet, who “hesitates to be a destroyer,” Laertes looks impatient - he does not want to wait and seeks to administer justice in accordance with the norms of equal retribution: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood.”

If Laertes had decided to understand the reasons for the death of his father, he would have been forced to admit that Polonius himself brought about death by actively supporting the king’s intrigues against Hamlet. The prince would not have touched Polonius if he himself had not exposed his chest to a blow intended not for him, but for Claudius. But feudal morality does not take into account circumstances, its commands are categorical - and Laertes takes revenge.

Preparing for a duel with the prince, Laertes bypasses the rules of fair and open combat. At the same time, facing death, the son of Polonius is filled with repentance (“Let us forgive each other, noble Hamlet!”). The prince, himself standing on the brink of death, releases his opponent with the words: “Be clear before heaven! I'm coming for you." Analyzing the reasons why Hamlet forgives Laertes, Anikst mentioned that among Shakespeare’s aristocratic heroes there are many who behave treacherously in peak situations - we are talking about the characters in the plays “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, “All’s Well That Ends Well”, “ Measure for measure." The “amnesty” received by these heroes goes back, perhaps, to the playwright’s internal attitude, expressed in the words: “You knock on your own heart, / Ask it: did it know / The same sin...”.

Speech images of Laertes

Researchers, studying the character of Laertes, pay attention to the characteristics of the character’s speech. Judging by the vocabulary, the son of Polonius is very well read: for example, he is familiar with the works of ancient authors, therefore, during Ophelia’s funeral, he exclaims that a hill will be erected on the grave of his deceased sister, which will exceed “both Pelion and the blue brow of Olympus.” The hero probably read the pastoral novel Arcadia, popular in the 16th century, by Philip Sidney - it is from there that he draws phrases about “a fiery speech that would like to flare up.”

One of the constant images present in Laertes' speech is flowers. Saying goodbye to his sister before leaving for Paris, the hero mentions that Hamlet’s short-lived affection for her is comparable to an impulse, a whim of blood and “a violet flower at the dawn of spring.” Instructing Ophelia on the path of virtues, Laertes warns her against imprudent steps: “The worm often wears away the firstborn of spring, / While their buds have not yet opened.” When the coffin with the girl’s body is lowered into the grave, her brother again turns to the theme of flowers: “And from this immaculate flesh / May violets grow!” According to Shakespeare scholars, flowers, on the one hand, are inseparable from the image of Ophelia; on the other hand, they are an integral element of the rhetoric of Laertes, who expresses his thoughts with pretentious sophistication.

Stage and cinematic incarnations

The role of Laertes became the debut for a number of actors who later played Hamlet. Thus, the Shakespearean repertoire of Edwin Booth, who began his theatrical career in 1849 with trips to the American states, included - among others - the role of the son of Polonius. The English tragedian Henry Irving embodied several characters in Hamlet, including the Prince of Denmark and Laertes. In January 1837, the premiere of Hamlet took place on the stage of the Maly Theater; the role of Laertes went to twenty-year-old Ivan Samarin. According to the critic Vissarion Belinsky, the young graduate of the Moscow Theater School did not demonstrate skill due to his “weak voice.” Nevertheless, later Samarin more than once turned to Shakespeare’s heroes, including Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and others.

On the Russian and Soviet stage, the role of Laertes was also performed by Grigoriev 1st (Alexandrinsky Theater, the play premiered in 1837), Richard Boleslavsky (Moscow Art Theater, 1911), Ivan Bersenev (2nd Moscow Art Theater, 1924), Akaki Khorava (Gruzinsky State Academic Theater named after Shota Rustaveli, 1925), Boris Smirnov (Theater under the direction of S. E. Radlov, 1938) and others.

The directorial debut of Nikolai Akimov, who staged Hamlet on the stage of the E. Vakhtangov Theater (1932), caused great resonance. Critics made many complaints against the creator of the play, including “formalism,” “competition with Shakespeare,” and “bringing the dapper Laertes to caricatured irony.” Subsequently, Nikolai Pavlovich explained in his book “Theatrical Heritage” that his interpretation of the role of the son of Polonius is due to parody, the elements of which were incorporated into this image by the author of the tragedy. Decades later, Akimov’s stage version was recognized by experts as “one of the brightest events of theatrical Moscow in the 1930s.”

In cinema, the image of Laertes was embodied by Terence Morgan (“Hamlet”, 1948), Stepan Oleksenko (“Hamlet”, 1964), Nathaniel Parker (“Hamlet”, 1990), Michael Maloney (“Hamlet”, 1996).

Write a review about the article "Laertes (character)"

The days, loaded to the brim with everyday worries, turned into weeks, and I still could not find free time to visit my sweet little friend. I thought about her almost every day and swore to myself that tomorrow I would definitely find time to “unwind my soul” for at least a couple of hours with this wonderful, bright little man... And also another, very strange thought did not give me peace - very I wanted to introduce Stella’s grandmother to my no less interesting and unusual grandmother... For some inexplicable reason, I was sure that both of these wonderful women would definitely find something to talk about...
So, finally, one fine day I suddenly decided that I would stop putting everything off “for tomorrow” and, although I was not at all sure that Stella’s grandmother would be there today, I decided that it would be wonderful if today I finally visited I’ll introduce my new girlfriend, and if I’m lucky, I’ll introduce our dear grandmothers to each other.
Some strange force literally pushed me out of the house, as if someone from afar was very softly and, at the same time, very persistently mentally calling me.
I quietly approached my grandmother and, as usual, began to hover around her, trying to figure out how best to present all this to her.
“Well, shall we go or something?” the grandmother asked calmly.
I stared at her dumbfounded, not understanding how she could find out that I was even going somewhere?!
Grandmother smiled slyly and, as if nothing had happened, asked:
“What, don’t you want to walk with me?”
In my heart, outraged by such an unceremonious invasion into my “private mental world,” I decided to “test” my grandmother.
- Well, of course I want to! – I exclaimed joyfully, and without saying where we would go, I headed towards the door.
– Take a sweater, we’ll be back late – it’ll be cool! – the grandmother shouted after him.
I couldn't stand it any longer...
- And how do you know where we are going?! – I ruffled my feathers like a frozen sparrow and muttered offendedly.
“It’s all written all over your face,” the grandmother smiled.
Of course, it wasn’t written on my face, but I would give a lot to find out how she always knew everything so confidently when it came to me?
A few minutes later we were already stomping together towards the forest, enthusiastically chatting about the most diverse and incredible stories, which she, naturally, knew much more than I did, and this was one of the reasons why I loved walking with her so much.
It was just the two of us, and there was no need to be afraid that someone would overhear and someone might not like what we were talking about.
Grandmother very easily accepted all my oddities and was never afraid of anything; and sometimes, if she saw that I was completely “lost” in something, she gave me advice to help me get out of this or that undesirable situation, but most often she simply observed how I reacted to life’s difficulties, which had already become permanent, without finally came across on my “spiked” path. Lately it has begun to seem to me that my grandmother is just waiting for something new to come along, in order to see if I have matured at least a heel, or if I am still “stuck away” in my “happy childhood”, not wanting to get out of my short childhood shirts. But even for her “cruel” behavior, I loved her very much and tried to take advantage of every convenient moment to spend time with her as often as possible.
The forest greeted us with the welcoming rustle of golden autumn leaves. The weather was magnificent, and one could hope that my new friend, by “luck,” would also be there.
I picked a small bouquet of some modest autumn flowers that still remained, and a few minutes later we were already next to the cemetery, at the gate of which... in the same place sat the same miniature sweet old lady...
- And I already thought I couldn’t wait for you! – she greeted joyfully.
My jaw literally dropped from such surprise, and at that moment I apparently looked quite stupid, because the old woman, laughing cheerfully, came up to us and affectionately patted me on the cheek.
- Well, you go, honey, Stella has already been waiting for you. And we'll sit here for a while...
I didn’t even have time to ask how I would get to the same Stella, when everything disappeared again somewhere, and I found myself in the already familiar world of Stella’s wild fantasy, sparkling and shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, and, without having time to take a better look around, I immediately I heard an enthusiastic voice:
- Oh, how good it is that you came! And I waited and waited!..
The girl flew up to me like a whirlwind and plopped a little red “dragon” right into my arms... I recoiled in surprise, but immediately laughed cheerfully, because it was the funniest and funniest creature in the world!..
“The little dragon,” if you can call him that, bulged his delicate pink belly and hissed at me threateningly, apparently hoping very much to scare me in this way. But when he saw that no one was going to be scared here, he calmly settled down on my lap and began to snore peacefully, showing how good he is and how much he should be loved...
I asked Stella what its name was and how long ago she created it.
- Oh, I haven’t even figured out what to call you yet! And he appeared right now! Do you really like him? – the girl chirped cheerfully, and I felt that she was pleased to see me again.
- This is for you! – she suddenly said. - He will live with you.
The little dragon funnyly stretched out its spiky muzzle, apparently deciding to see if I had anything interesting... And suddenly licked me right on the nose! Stella squealed with delight and was clearly very pleased with her creation.
“Well, okay,” I agreed, “while I’m here, he can be with me.”
“Aren’t you going to take him with you?” – Stella was surprised.
And then I realized that she apparently doesn’t know at all that we are “different” and that we no longer live in the same world. Most likely, the grandmother, in order to feel sorry for her, did not tell the girl the whole truth, and she sincerely thought that this was exactly the same world in which she had lived before, with the only difference being that now she could still create her own world.. .
I knew for sure that I didn’t want to be the one who told this little trusting girl what her life was really like today. She was content and happy in this “her” fantastic reality, and I mentally swore to myself that I would never and never be the one who would destroy this fairy-tale world of hers. I just couldn’t understand how my grandmother explained the sudden disappearance of her entire family and, in general, everything in which she was now living?..
“You see,” I said with a slight hesitation, smiling, “where I live, dragons are not very popular...
- So no one will see him! – the little girl chirped cheerfully.
A weight had just been lifted off my shoulders!.. I hated lying or trying to get out, and especially in front of such a pure little person as Stella was. It turned out that she understood everything perfectly and somehow managed to combine the joy of creation and the sadness of losing her family.
– And I finally found a friend here! – the little girl declared victoriously.
- Oh, well?.. Will you ever introduce me to him? – I was surprised.
She nodded her fluffy red head amusingly and squinted slyly.
- Do you want it right now? – I felt that she was literally “fidgeting” in place, unable to contain her impatience any longer.
– Are you sure that he will want to come? – I was wary.
Not because I was afraid or embarrassed of anyone, I just didn’t have the habit of bothering people without a particularly important reason, and I wasn’t sure that right now this reason was serious... But Stella was apparently into it I’m absolutely sure, because literally after a split second a man appeared next to us.
It was a very sad knight... Yes, yes, exactly a knight!.. And I was very surprised that even in this “other” world, where he could “put on” any energy “clothes”, he still did not parted with his stern knightly guise, in which he still, apparently, remembered himself very well... And for some reason I thought that he must have had some very serious reasons for this, if even after so many years he I didn’t want to part with this look.
Usually, when people die, for the first time after their death, their essences always look exactly as they looked at the moment of their physical death. Apparently, the enormous shock and wild fear of the unknown are great enough not to add any additional stress to this. When time passes (usually after a year), the essences of old and elderly people gradually begin to look young and become exactly the same as they were in the best years of their youth. Well, the untimely dead babies suddenly “grow up”, as if “catching up” with their unlived years, and become somewhat similar to their essences, as they were when they entered the bodies of these unfortunate people who died too early, or from some kind of disease untimely deceased children, with the only difference that some of them “add” a little in development, if during their short years lived in the physical body they were lucky enough... And much later, each essence changes, depending on how she continues to live in the “new” world.
And high essences living on the mental level of the earth, unlike all the others, are even able to create a “face” and “clothing” for themselves, at their own request, since, having lived for a very long time (the higher the development of the essence, the rarer it re-incarnates into a physical body) and having become sufficiently accustomed to that “other” world, initially unfamiliar to them, they themselves are able to create and create a lot.

Laertes(English Laertes) - a character in William Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet", the son of the influential nobleman Polonius, brother of Ophelia. Represents the "classic vigilante type."

• 1 Laertes in the plot of the tragedy
• 2 Theme of revenge. Hamlet and Laertes
• 3 Laertes' speech patterns
• 4 Stage and cinematic incarnations
• 5 Notes
• 6 Literature

Laertes in the plot of the tragedy

The acquaintance with the character, whom one of the courtiers characterizes as “a true gentleman, charming in manner and beautiful in appearance,” takes place in the reception hall of Elsinore Castle. A young man, who arrived in Denmark from France to participate in events on the occasion of the coronation of King Claudius, asks the monarch for permission to return to Paris. Polonius, who is present during the conversation, admits to Claudius that his son, trying to escape from his home, “exhausted his soul.” The king agrees to the trip and admonishes Laertes with the phrase: “Seek happiness!” .

According to the literary critic Alexander Anikst, Laertes inherited from his father a penchant for moralizing; Saying goodbye to his sister, the hero gives Ophelia a number of instructions - in particular, he asks her to reject Hamlet’s advances, because the Danish prince has no control over his desires: “He is a citizen of his birth, / He does not cut his own piece.” Ophelia in response notes that her brother - “a careless and empty reveler” - does not always correlate his actions with his own edifying speeches.

The next appearance of the hero occurs after the death of Polonius, who received a fatal blow from Hamlet’s sword at the moment when the courtier overheard the prince’s conversation with his mother. Laertes does not know the circumstances under which the fatal blow was struck, but is determined to take revenge. Bursting into the Elsinore palace with the rebels, the young man demands that the king return his father to him. Researchers note that in this situation, the ardent and unrestrained young man bears little resemblance to the cautious Polonius, prone to behind-the-scenes intrigues: “He has the features of a feudal lord who considers himself equal to kings.” His hot temperament is also manifested in other scenes: for example, Laertes is indignant at the lack of due respect for the memory of his father during his burial and threatens the priest conducting the “abbreviated” farewell rite with Ophelia with hellish torments.

Evidence that revenge for Laertes is above honor is, according to Anikst, the extraordinary ease with which the hero accepts Claudius’s plan, proposing to kill Hamlet in a sophisticated way - so that “even his mother will not see the intent.” According to the king's idea, during the battle with the prince, the son of Polonius will be offered a rapier with a poisoned blade, while Hamlet will be offered a regular one. However, during the duel the heroes accidentally switch weapons; both are mortally wounded. Before his death, Laertes manages to repent, admit his guilt for the murder of the prince and ask him for forgiveness for what he did: “I myself am punished by my treachery.”

Theme of revenge. Hamlet and Laertes

According to the literary critic Igor Shaitanov, if Shakespeare had made the main character not Hamlet, but Laertes, the image of the main character would not have needed additional decoding - on the contrary, the central character would have been interpreted outside the poetics of riddles: “Laertes is the right avenger.” Literary critic Ivan Aksyonov described Polonius’s son in exactly the same way, believing that this hero was “all in the palm of his hand.” Considering revenge as one of the main motives of the tragedy, researchers compare the reactions of Hamlet and Laertes to certain events, especially since the heroes are placed in similar situations: both had their fathers killed, which means that it is necessary - in accordance with the concepts of the era - to resolve the issue of retribution for what he did.

If Hamlet, guessing about the king’s involvement in the death of his father, nevertheless considers it necessary to collect irrefutable evidence of his guilt, then Laertes is completely devoid of reflection: he appears in Elsinore with the thought that he must punish Claudius: “And come what may; If only for my father / To take revenge as it should be.” The prince, even having received confirmation of his suspicions, is in no hurry to punish. The poet Goethe saw his slowness as a combination of “strong intellect and weak will,” while the writer and critic Karl Werder attributed Hamlet’s inaction to the lack of favorable circumstances. Compared to Hamlet, who is “hesitant to be a destroyer,” Laertes looks impatient - he does not want to wait and seeks to administer justice in accordance with the norms of equal retribution: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood.”

If Laertes had decided to understand the reasons for the death of his father, he would have been forced to admit that Polonius himself brought about death by actively supporting the king’s intrigues against Hamlet. The prince would not have touched Polonius if he himself had not exposed his chest to a blow intended not for him, but for Claudius. But feudal morality does not take into account circumstances, its commands are categorical - and Laertes takes revenge.

Preparing for a duel with the prince, Laertes bypasses the rules of fair and open combat. At the same time, facing death, the son of Polonius is filled with repentance (“Let us forgive each other, noble Hamlet!”). The prince, himself standing on the brink of death, releases his opponent with the words: “Be clear before heaven! I'm coming for you." Analyzing the reasons why Hamlet forgives Laertes, Anikst mentioned that among Shakespeare’s aristocratic heroes there are many who behave treacherously in peak situations - we are talking about the characters in the plays “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, “All’s Well That Ends Well”, “ Measure for measure". The “amnesty” received by these heroes goes back, perhaps, to the playwright’s internal attitude, expressed in the words: “You knock on your own heart, / Ask it: did it know / The same sin...”.

Speech images of Laertes

Researchers, studying the character of Laertes, pay attention to the characteristics of the character’s speech. Judging by the vocabulary, the son of Polonius is very well read: for example, he is familiar with the works of ancient authors, therefore, during Ophelia’s funeral, he exclaims that a hill will be erected on the grave of his deceased sister, which will exceed “both Pelion and the blue celestial brow of Olympus.” The hero probably read Philip Sidney's popular pastoral novel "Arcadia" in the 16th century - it is from there that he draws phrases about "a fiery speech that would like to flare up."

One of the constant images present in Laertes' speech is flowers. Saying goodbye to his sister before leaving for Paris, the hero mentions that Hamlet’s short-lived affection for her is comparable to an impulse, a whim of blood and “a violet flower at the dawn of spring.” Instructing Ophelia on the path of virtues, Laertes warns her against imprudent steps: “The worm often wears away the firstborn of spring, / While their buds have not yet opened.” When the coffin with the girl’s body is lowered into the grave, her brother again turns to the theme of flowers: “And from this immaculate flesh / May violets grow!” According to Shakespeare scholars, flowers, on the one hand, are inseparable from the image of Ophelia; on the other hand, they are an integral element of the rhetoric of Laertes, who expresses his thoughts with pretentious sophistication.

Stage and cinematic incarnations

The role of Laertes became the debut for a number of actors who later played Hamlet. Thus, the Shakespearean repertoire of Edwin Booth, who began his theatrical career in 1849 with trips to the American states, included - among others - the role of the son of Polonius. The English tragedian Henry Irving embodied several characters in Hamlet, including the Prince of Denmark and Laertes. In January 1837, the premiere of Hamlet took place on the stage of the Maly Theater; The role of Laertes went to twenty-year-old Ivan Samarin. According to the critic Vissarion Belinsky, the young graduate of the Moscow Theater School did not demonstrate skill due to his “weak voice.” Nevertheless, later Samarin more than once turned to Shakespeare’s heroes, including Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and others.

On the Russian and Soviet stage, the role of Laertes was also performed by Grigoriev 1st (Alexandrinsky Theater, the premiere of the play took place in 1837), Richard Boleslavsky (Moscow Art Theater, 1911), Ivan Bersenev (2nd Moscow Art Theater, 1924), Akaki Khorava (Gruzinsky State Academic Theater named after Shota Rustaveli, 1925), Boris Smirnov (Theater under the direction of S. E. Radlov, 1938) and others.

The directorial debut of Nikolai Akimov, who staged Hamlet on the stage of the E. Vakhtangov Theater (1932), caused a great resonance. Critics made many complaints against the creator of the play, including “formalism,” “competition with Shakespeare,” and “bringing the dapper Laertes to caricatured irony.” Subsequently, Nikolai Pavlovich explained in his book “Theatrical Heritage” that his interpretation of the role of the son of Polonius is due to parody, the elements of which were incorporated into this image by the author of the tragedy. Decades later, Akimov’s stage version was recognized by experts as “one of the brightest events of theatrical Moscow in the 1930s.”

One of the most notable productions of the 1970s was Hamlet at the Taganka Theater (directed by Yuri Lyubimov). According to theater critic Vadim Gaevsky, the play turned out to be “scary and at the same time very funny,” Lyubimov’s Elsinore is “not so much the kingdom of villains as the kingdom of imaginary kings,” and Laertes, performed by actor Valery Ivanov, seemed to be the king of duels and Parisian nightlife . In addition to Ivanov, Alexander Porokhovshchikov also played this role.

In cinema, the image of Laertes was embodied by Terence Morgan (Hamlet, 1948), Stepan Oleksenko (Hamlet, 1964), Nathaniel Parker (Hamlet, 1990), Michael Maloney (Hamlet, 1996).

laertes character from, laertes character illustration, laertes character watch, laertes character movie