Know, first of all, that this is a work of love.
As I’m writing this, I have loved Shakespeare’s Hamlet for fifteen years and taught it for ten. I’ve read it countless times and was thrilled to find new aspects as I was researching this book.
HamletLaertes always struck me as a criminally underrated character. Famously, he’s Hamlet’s foil. He goes through similar experiences—losing his father to murder and looking to avenge him, besides claiming to care about the same woman (though in different ways) and having a similar skill set, age, and cultural background—but he deals with these things in a nobler way.
Instead of lollygagging about righting a profound wrong, he rushes in to confront the person he assumes is his father’s murderer. Instead of shouting at Ophelia for making decisions
