Hey Laertes! Avenging the Death of a Father is My Thing

Laertes:
"How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with.
To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation.  To this point I stand
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes, only I'll be revenged
Most throughly for my father" (4.5, 148-154)

Throughout the entirety of the play, Hamlet's sole goal has been to avenge the death of his father. Over the course of Act IV, both Polonius and Ophelia are found to be dead, but unfortunately for Hamlet neither death will avenge the death of his father.  In fact, the only thing that comes out of these deaths is another son who must avenge the death of his own father.  That someone is Laertes. The passage above reenforces the concept of filial duty that is so prominent throughout the play while simultaneously presenting a truly ironic scenario.

The concept of filial duty is reenforced on several occasions as the plot of Hamlet progresses.  In the passage above, Laertes is forced to face his own filial duty after the death of his father.  He seems to take this task very seriously as shown through a series of proclamations - "to hell, allegiance" (149), "vows, to the blackest devil" (149), "conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit" (150), and "I dare damnation" (151).  The first statement is important in identifying how serious Laertes is taking this situation.  He is willing to throw away all allegiances in order to complete the sole task of avenging the death of Polonius, his father.  The second statement shows that he is willing to do whatever it takes no matter how horrible or immoral.  The use of the word "blackest" is indicative of the extreme lengths he is willing to go to avenge the death.  Throwing away "conscience and grace" (150) reveals that he is willing to perform acts that he would otherwise deem stupid or irrational.  Laertes is even willing to risk eternal punishment in hell if it means his father's death will be avenged.  He is not messing around with the whole filial duty deal.

The scenario the passage above presents is riddled with dramatic and situational irony. Laertes starts off with "how came he dead?" (148) in the context of his father's death.  Well that's awkward for him considering the audience knows that it is Hamlet who killed Polonius. Yikes!  He then goes on his rant about how he will stop at nothing to avenge his father's death.  All the while, all I could think about was the fact that Hamlet killed Polonius because he thought Polonius was Claudius.He concludes the rant with "I'll be revenged most throughly for my father" (154).  Had Polonius been Claudius, Hamlet would have been successful in avenging the death of his father and Laertes would have no reason to avenge the death of his.  Through one son's lack of success in trying to avenge the death of his own father, another son is forced to perform his filial duty.

The events leading up to Laertes vowing to avenge the death of his father were unfortunate.  Hamlet is a little bit crazy and a whole lot of hot headed.  As a result he is not very good at performing his filial duty.  Unfortunately for Hamlet, Laertes is probably better at the whole avenging-the-death-of-a-father-thing, so he should probably get his act together fast.