Fortinbras In Hamlet

The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke, by William Shakespeare, is a play about revenge. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, murdered Hamlet’s father and married his mother. Despite such affronts, Hamlet is indecisive, only killing Claudius at the end of the tragedy. On a plain in Denmark, Hamlet encounters a captain of Fortinbras’s army. The captain expounds that the army marches to Poland, where they will fight over a “little patch of ground” not worth “five ducats” (IV.iv.18,20). In his soliloquy at the of the fourth scene of Act IV, Hamlet reflects on his inaction and gives resolve to his desire for revenge. Hamlet thinks that he is a coward. He has the means, as well as the ability, with which to avenge his father’s murder, yet he remains idle. On the contrary, Fortinbras has no purpose but to gain glory from battle. He is willing to sacrifice thousands of troops for a small, worthless plot of land. Hamlet reflects that, “[r]ightly to be great/ Is not to stir without great argument,/ But greatly to find quarrel in a straw/ When honour’s at the stake” (IV.iv.53-56). Fortinbras, who Hamlet regards as …show more content…
“What is a man,/ If his chief good and market of {compensation for} his time/ Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more” (IV.iv.33-36). He thinks that his inactivity has made him a feast, for he does nothing more, in his opinion, than to sleep and feed. He remarks that God gave humans power of thought so that they could use it, not squander it away. Hamlet’s remark of himself behaving as a beast connects to a theme of the play: the distinction between bestiality and humanity. Earlier in the play, in the second scene of Act I, Hamlet states that his mother is beast-like, for “a beast that wants discourse of reason/ Would have mourned {the loss of a loved one} longer” (IV.iv.150-151). Tarrying his vengeance, Hamlet views himself as a beast that “wants discourse of