During his trip to England, Hamlet encounters Fortinbras’s captain on his mission to request that Fortinbras’s troops may cross the land. The exchange of information during this scene is pivotal to Hamlet’s re-definition, or the “why” he has changed upon his return to Denmark. Fortinbras’s troops are set to recapture a plot of land that has little value except in name. The captain explains, “with no addition,” which highlights the plain nature of his tone regarding what he is about to reveal:
“CAPTAIN: We go to gain a little patch of ground / That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it, Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole / A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee” (Shakespeare 4.4.18-22).
Hamlet is quick to note that this is a fruitless cause, failing the morality barometer that the Prince has been grappling with throughout the play, thus he acknowledges:“HAMLET: This is th’ imposthume of …show more content…
He hath borne me on his back a thousand times. And now how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it...Dost thou think Alexander looked o’’ this fashion i’ th’ earth?” (Shakespeare 5.1.186-200).
Obviously, Hamlet knew Yorick quite well and appreciated the man in his youth. Therefore, it is all the more poignant that Shakespeare masterfully accentuates the physicality of his death, as this weighs on Hamlet’s own morality. In light of this, the Prince of Denmark now seems more keen to take action and cement his place in a fight against the injustices taken place against his kingdom. As A.C. Bradley notes in his analysis of the play:
“in Hamlet’s moral sensibility there undoubtedly lay a danger. Any great shock that life might inflict on it would be felt with extreme intensity...in fact, Hamlet deserves to the title “tragedy of moral idealism” (Bradley 183).
This driving force of the protagonist, perhaps his fatal characteristic, is now Hamlet’s central
“CAPTAIN: We go to gain a little patch of ground / That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it, Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole / A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee” (Shakespeare 4.4.18-22).
Hamlet is quick to note that this is a fruitless cause, failing the morality barometer that the Prince has been grappling with throughout the play, thus he acknowledges:“HAMLET: This is th’ imposthume of …show more content…
He hath borne me on his back a thousand times. And now how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it...Dost thou think Alexander looked o’’ this fashion i’ th’ earth?” (Shakespeare 5.1.186-200).
Obviously, Hamlet knew Yorick quite well and appreciated the man in his youth. Therefore, it is all the more poignant that Shakespeare masterfully accentuates the physicality of his death, as this weighs on Hamlet’s own morality. In light of this, the Prince of Denmark now seems more keen to take action and cement his place in a fight against the injustices taken place against his kingdom. As A.C. Bradley notes in his analysis of the play:
“in Hamlet’s moral sensibility there undoubtedly lay a danger. Any great shock that life might inflict on it would be felt with extreme intensity...in fact, Hamlet deserves to the title “tragedy of moral idealism” (Bradley 183).
This driving force of the protagonist, perhaps his fatal characteristic, is now Hamlet’s central