In William’s Shakespeare’s Hamlet, characters are utilized to highlight the flaws and discrepancies of others. Through familial duty, actions, and vengeances of the two subplots of Hamlet and Fortinbras, it is evident that both characters are parallel to one another. Fortinbras serves as fail to emphasize aspects of Hamlet’s personality, which enhances plot and character development.…
Throughout William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there exists an inner struggle among all characters, as to who they are and who they strive to become. Princes of rival nations, Hamlet and Fortinbras, undergo a desire to achieve a greatness to which they feel destined. Through examining these two characters, one can discover the true value of a foil in developing the character’s personality, differentiating the feeling of defeat, and the motives affecting their…
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the theme of revenge is very palpable as the reader examines the characters of Hamlet himself, as well as Laertes, son of Polonius, and Fortinbras, prince of Norway and son of the late King Fortinbras. Each of these young characters felt the need to avenge the deaths of their fathers who they felt were untimely killed at the bloody hands of their murderers. However, the way each chose to go about this varies greatly and gives insight into their characters and how they progress throughout the play.…
Hamlets father was killed by his Uncle Claudius due to jealousy of the kingdom. Claudius poisoned his brother while he was sleeping in the garden. Hamlet finds out his father was murdered by meeting is ghost in the yard of the kingdom. Hamlet decides to plan out his revenge by first acting like he has gone mad because of his father’s death. He breaks his loves heart in the process but doesn’t stop his revenge. He orders for a play to be presented to the royal court, including his uncle and his mother. This play is supposed to simulate his fathers death and he wants to see how the king reacts to the play. This is where he realizes that the ghost was telling the truth. Claudius then figures out that Hamlet has been suspicious and decides to send him to England to be killed. While speaking to his mother, Hamlet hears someone spying on them and kills his loves father, Polonius. This was the beginning of the tragedy. Hamlet has a moment to kill Claudius before he leaves for England but questions himself and his actions. He then leaves only to return after finding a letter of his execution and being “attacked” by pirates. Claudius and Polonius’s son, Laertes, have come up with a plan to kill Hamlet when he arrives. They are going to challenge him in a fencing battle with poison at the end of the sword. If this plan fails, they will have poisoned wine for Hamlet to drink.…
Hamlet (prince of Denmark) can be greatly compared to Laertes (son of a noble), and Fortinbras (prince of Norway) in the play. They all are very similar but yet different at the same time. They all had love and respect for their fathers and felt the need to avenge their deaths, which all were brutally killed. All three believed that the murderers had dishonoured their fathers as well as themselves. They all reacted and took different approaches in attempt to restore honour in their families.…
Fortimbras’ roll in this play is too small that has only be talked about from other people’s words. However, we can still see the opposite characteristics between Hamlet and Fortinbras. Hamlet is aggressive without control while Fortinbras is aggressive with control. After Hamlet knows the murder of his father which has been committed by his uncle he determined to take revenge almost right away without any doubt. In the contrast, Fortinbra obeys his uncle’s order and swear not to invade Norway any more although he is aggressive and good at…
Fortinbras’ plans became known to the Danes, as his revenge for his father’s death is turning to the lands they inhabit. Horatio and Bernardo are on watch duty talking about the future of the kingdom when they encounter a ghost; this ghost promotes the idea of wickedness rising in the mind of Fortinbras, and it warns the guards of what is to come. Exacerbated in this quote is the idea Fortinbras has to gain revenge for his father’s death by reclaiming the lands stolen from him. The reader can assume it will not be a peaceful trade, as noted when Horatio mentions: “recover of us, by strong hand…” -- an ode to the military presence Fortinbras has. This quote assists the beginning act of Hamlet in moving the plot forward for the continuation…
When young Fortinbras was a boy, his father, former king of Norway, gets killed in a battle with King Hamlet, young Hamlet’s father, and loses Norwegian territory which by ended up part of Denmark since King Hamlet won the fight and killed King Fortinbras. Furthermore, young Fortinbras’s uncle, old Norway, takes over the throne instead of giving it to his nephew, young Fortinbras, just as Claudius who also crowns himself when King Hamlet dies. When the play opens, however, the responses of young Fortinbras and young Hamlet depart to completely different directions, which perhaps in masculine and feminine ways. Just as Horatio describes him “of unimproved mettle hot and full” (1.1.97-98), young Fortinbras never really get to know his father, but he blames King Hamlet for the death of King Fortinbras and immediately raises an army called “lawless resolutes” to reclaim Norway’s lost territories. On the other side, Hamlet chooses to stay away from his duties as the only price of Denmark and the successor to the crown. While Fortinbras is training his army and treats Denmark to reclaim their lands and avenge his father, Hamlet has done nothing but complaining about his fate and struggles to kill Claudius even he had a chance to do so. Just from how frightened Hamlet is from his opening phrase of the soliloquy in Nunnery…
Act I Briefly summarize the key events in this act. In Act 1, we open with a dialogue between three men- Marcellus, Bernardo and Horatio. They are visited by a ghost, who is later verified by Horatio to in fact be the recently deceased King Hamlet. Next, we are introduced to Claudius, the new king since the death of King Hamlet, marrying into an incestuous relationship of King Hamlet’s past wife, Gertrude. He decides to keep Hamlet, our protagonist, in Denmark, not allowing him to leave the country due to his grief. In the next scene, we are introduced to Ophelia, Polonius and Laertes, the latter being shipped off to France and the father, Polonius, giving advice. The two also give advice to the daughter, Ophelia, as it is revealed that she has a relationship with Hamlet, the two warn her that this is an unwise decision. The final scene begins on the Castle platform, where King Hamlet reveals himself to his son Hamlet and Horatio. Hamlet follows his father and learns that his death was by murder, at the hands of Claudius. Hamlet is instructed to avenge his father, and he vows to do so.…
Act I Scene 1 : Claudius announced that he is the new king of Denmark when the beloved king Hamlet is dead and also stated that he is now married to Hamlet’s Mother, old Hamlet’s wife. Before Old Hamlet past, his great rival Fortinbras, King of Noway dared him to battle and Old Hamlet killed Old King Fortinbras. Now that Old King Fortinbras is dead, young Fortinbras is now the new king of Norway, he is tough and unproven and he now wants to take over Denmark.…
Throughout the play, Hamlet expresses his internalised battle between his mission to avenge his father’s death and his morality through his long soliloquies. For example, in Act 3, Scene 3, Hamlet has a golden opportunity to kill Claudius in his bedchambers but decides against it when he discovers Claudius is praying. He avers that to kill Claudius then, when he is confessing his sins, would be to send him to heaven. He exclaims that ‘this is hire and salary, not revenge’, saying that the action of killing Claudius mid-prayer would warrant a reward instead of being an act of revenge. These conflicting feelings within Hamlet cause him to be indecisive with his actions. As England was in the midst of transitioning from barbaric medieval times to the more refined Renaissance period during the time of Hamlet, Shakespeare uses Hamlet’s confliction to highlight his progressive thinking in comparison to Claudius’ uncouth ways and to signal to his audiences the dawn of a new…
In his most famous soliloquy, Hamlet becomes aware that “conscience does make cowards of us all; and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action.” (3.1. 85-90) Hamlet initially wonders if it's better to put up with the bad things you know about in life than to die. His problem is that he doesn't want to keep on living when Denmark is in this tragic state of decay. In thinking about the unknown that death brings "make cowards of us all,” Hamlet begins to accept what needs to be done. In his final soliloquy, Hamlet addresses the action of young Fortinbras and his bold, seemingly pointless actions. He questions why these men are risking their lives for a rather unimportant piece of land, why he can’t even muster up the courage to do something that has a legitimate point. “What is a man if his chief good and/market of his time be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more” (4.4. 34-36) He ensues to claim that if men don’t act, but wait for what is desired to happen, they are no more than animals. “I see the imminent death of twenty thousand men, that, for a fantasy and trick of fame, go to their graves liked beds, fight for a plot…O, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.” (4.4. 60-67) Hamlet, in the end, is finally able to…
His revenge is unique because it is put upon by the nation he leads, Norway. His father, the former King of Norway, was defeated in a fair duel by Hamlet’s father. The loss resulted in the relinquishment of Norwegian land. Now, in an act of honor as the Norway’s leader Fortinbras is obliged by his countrymen to take back what is theirs. His honor is also different to that of Hamlet and Laertes because it is not as hell-bent on murder as the tasks asked of the other two sons. Fortinbras task is less of a duty of a son to his father, but more of a king to his…
In turn, one may feel that the only way to relieve the negative feelings is to seek revenge and kill the person whom one blames for them. Hamlet clearly shows a deep love for his father, and he is utterly heart-broken over his death, especially after seeing his uncle take his place. Therefore, when his father 's ghost informs him that it is a murderer, not a snake, who is responsible for his death, Hamlet immediately responds: "Haste me to know [who], that I, with wings a swift / As meditation or thoughts of love, / May sweep to my revenge." (Hamlet, I, V, 35-37) He does not even know whom he has to kill yet, but he is already sure that he must avenge his father, no matter the cost. Hamlet is so lost without his father, he needs somewhere to place the blame for his death. Thus, when this opportunity arises he endeavours to seize it in an attempt to avenge his father, and alleviate his own heartache as well. Fortinbras, too, seeks revenge for his father 's death. However, unlike Hamlet, he does not have a ghost to incite him, only thirty years of hatred and anger toward the ruler of Denmark. He spends his whole life trying to win back the land his father lost to the Danes, take vengeance for Old Fortinbras, and regain dignity for him and his people. When, finally, he storms the castle to assume the throne and the "... rights of memory [he has] in this…
After what happened here today in Elsinore, I'm quiet sure that you're probably confused and full of sadness. Some of the people who died here today deserve to be remembered, whereas others do not. I'm here to tell you the real story of what happened and how it led to these many deaths.…