Fortinbras Importance to Hamlet Essay

Fortinbras Importance to Hamlet

In the story of Hamlet, both Young Hamlet and Young Fortinbras lose their fathers. Few years before, Hamlets father, the dead King Hamlet, invaded Fortinbras country of Norway and took territory from them by force. Hamlets father was later killed by his brother, Claudius, and assumed position as King as well as marrying the formerly widowed Queen Gertrude. Eventually, both Young Fortinbras and Young Hamlet avenged their fathers deaths. Young Fortinbras did this through asserting himself and his military to action, and invading the then troubled Denmark. Despite Hamlets passive contemplation, he too avenged his fathers murder by stabbing Claudius and forcing him to gulp down a glass of poisoned wine. Both Young Hamlet and Young Fortinbras sought vengeance for their fathers untimely deaths, but had contrasting motives and completely opposite plans of action.

Fortinbras' father, King of Norway, was killed during battle for control of a little patch of ground(4.4, 19). Fortinbras uncle claims the throne of Norway just as Claudius took the throne in Denmark, and linked the common destiny between Young Fortinbras and Hamlet in their attempt for vengeance of their fathers deaths. Fortinbras and Hamlet contrast in their taking of action where Fortinbras acts immediately after reasoning, where Hamlet makes continual lackadaisical steps towards revenge. Although both equally sought vengeance, their motives contrasted. Hamlet wasnt only troubled because his father had been murdered, but because his mother married his uncle Claudius, the murderer, just a few months following the death. This continuously haunted him because of their public displays of affection, which he found nauseating. In Hamlets famous soliloquy in act 1, scene 2 he wonders to himself, Must I remember? Why she would hang on him,/ as if increase of appetite had grown/ By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--/Let me not think ontFrailty thy name is woman!. On the other hand, Fortinbras had been deprived the throne after his fathers death, and he seeked honor and glory along with vengeance.

In Hamlets soliloquy in Act 4, he begins to illustrate his mental instability through contrasting himself and Young Fortinbras. He views himself as a coward compared to Fortinbras and envies his ability to take action. Hamlet says late in his soliloquy, When honours at the stake. How stand I then/ That have a father killd, a mother staind/ Excitements of my reason and my blood/ And let all sleep? While, to my shame, I see. Although Hamlet seems to admire the dominance and will power that Fortinbras displays, he also criticizes him and his unattainable dream in the soliloquy by saying, The imminent death of twenty thousand men,/ That, for a fantasy and trick of fame(4.4). In this statement, Hamlet is declaring that he thinks Fortinbras quest is meaningless and deems it foolish. He sees that although Fortinbras has the ability to take action after reasoning, he thinks that his ability to think things through will aid more to him in the end.

Hamlet, after learning that his father's death was a murder and vowing to take revenge, wants to be certain that what he has been told is the absolute truth before he attempts to take revenge on Claudius. Even after Hamlet reads the guilty conscience of King Claudius after his reaction to Young Hamlets reenactment of his fathers murder, he still hesitates to kill him. He has the chance while Claudius knelt praying, yet he talks himself out of it, going on to say, Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying;/ And now Ill dot. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scannd (4.3). Hamlets reason behind backing out was because he didnt feel that Claudius deserved to die after he had finished praying, yet while his soul was dark and sin-filled. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge/He took my father grossly, full of bread (4.3). Fortinbras, on the other hand, has been taking action even before the play begins. Soon after his Fortinbras father had been killed, he planned to take over Denmark by storm and win back his familys pride and glory. I believe that if it had not been for Fortinbras influence on Hamlet, he would have mulled over his decision and taken no action at all.

Though Both Hamlet and Young Fortinbras sought vengeance of their fathers untimely deaths, each went about doing so with separate motives and polar opposite plans of action. Hamlet sought revenge in a slowly timed manner in which he wanted King Claudius to suffer, and go to purgatory with a dark soul full of sins. While Hamlet admires himself because of his ability to use his intelligence to his capacity and then act upon it, Fortinbras is taking action the entire time putting his military to work on Denmark. In a way, Fortinbras seems to be the catalyst of the play, in which Hamlet sees his decisive actions and comes to believe that the situation with Claudius must be done with immediately. Without Fortinbras in the play, I believe Hamlet would have continued to contemplate his actions and never followed through, leaving the nation of Denmark as rotten as ever.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. PinkMonkey Downloadable document. Web. 1 October, 2009.