Final answer:
Laertes and Hamlet both seek revenge for their families' tragic events but their responses reveal different traits; Laertes is decisive and action-oriented, while Hamlet is contemplative and morally torn.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Laertes's responses to tragic events in his family serve to both compare and contrast him with Hamlet. Where Hamlet is introspective and contemplative, often paralyzed by his philosophical considerations and moral doubts, Laertes responds with a fiery passion and a quickness to action. This contrast reveals a great deal about his character — he is impulsive, direct, and motivated strongly by honor and family loyalty.
While both Laertes and Hamlet are driven by a need for revenge, the roots of their motivation differ. For Hamlet, the protracted deliberation and the inner turmoil about the righteousness of the act is paramount. Laertes, on the other hand, jumps straight into planning his retribution, showing a readiness to act that Hamlet lacks. This does not speak to an indifference on Laertes's part but to a kind of decisiveness and practical resolve that differs significantly from Hamlet's more cerebral approach to the same situation.
Ultimately, the right answer to the student's question is that Laertes and Hamlet respond similarly but for different reasons (option d). Both react emotionally and intensely to the wrongs they perceive have been done to their families, but their methods and understandings of action and delay, revenge and justice, and madness and rationality, are characteristically distinct.