Justin Dathan Anders Drewry, author of “HAMLET’S FATHERS: AN ANALYSIS OF PATERNITY AND FILIAL DUTY IN SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET”. Drewry emphasizes King Hamlet and Polonius' role in being a father figure to their respective sons and how King Hamlet and Polonius led Hamlet and Laertes to their own demise.
Drewry begins his criticism between the connection of King Hamlet and Hamlet. Drewry criticizes King Hamlet as a character for having a poor paternal influence towards Hamlet. Drewry supports this by examining the quotes made by Horatio such as that King Hamlet was “a goodly king” (I, ii, 186), separating King Hamlet between his royal title and role as a father. Drewry suggests that since King Hamlet was absent most of Hamlet’s life when the Ghost …show more content…
Drewry begins by analyzing the character of Laertes and how he loses his control to follow Polonius’ remaining commands before leaving for France. Since Laertes was never aware of his father’s espionage antics he never knew what Polonius was doing behind the scenes and how Polonius seemed to be more caught up in royal affairs and spying than looking over his family which he appears to lose control of throughout the play. Drewry suggests that because of the false idealization Laertes has of his father, it is the result of why Laertes first accuses Claudius for his death because he would never believe his father would spy. Claudius then takes advantage of a now vulnerable Laertes because of his status stripped from him that a Lord died to a Prince and how Laertes now takes on a filial duty that is a thought present from Claudius that he will be the one to kill Hamlet so that Claudius can never be accused for doing anything and that Laertes was only avenging his father to redeem honour to his family’s name. Once Laertes is hit by Hamlet with the poison sword he realizes how he became vulnerable and followed Claudius instead of staying true to his values and apologizes to Hamlet for what he has