Fortinbras In Hamlet

Hamlet vs Fortinbras HAMLET AND FORTINBRAS In Hamlet the character of Fortinbras, a young Norwegian prince, has been used as a foil for the main character Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark. Hamlet and Fortinbras have both lost their fathers to untimely deaths. Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, was killed by his uncle Claudius and Fortinbras' father was killed by King Hamlet. Both Hamlet and Fortinbras have vowed to take revenge for the deaths of their fathers.

In many versions of Hamlet, the character of Fortinbras is taken out. Fortinbras is the heir to Norway, but his father lost almost all of his inheritance to King Hamlet. Fortinbras wanted revenge, but he was told he could not take it because the land was lost fairly in an agreed contract. Fortinbras represents Hamlet after he has learned of his father’s murder, the only difference is that he does not take revenge because King Fortinbras was not murdered. Although what he contributes can easily be omitted from the play, many feel that it ruins the play at the end. After all of the heirs to the Denmark throne have been killed, Fortinbras comes to Denmark from a victorious conquer of Poland. In his dying breath Hamlet said, "But I do prophesy th’election lights On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice" (308). Because much of the Denmark land once was Fortinbras’ inheritance, Fortinbras was enable to claim the kingdom. This ending is needed to make the play a true tragedy. According to Aristotle, a tragedy is a "a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force, . . . reaching a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror while leaving one with a sense of reconciliation rather than one of

Shakespeare's drama Hamlet has become a central piece of literature of Western culture. It is the story of a prince named Hamlet, who lost his father. Soon after that he has to confront multiple obstacles and devises a series of situations to defend the new king's royalty. Furthermore, he had to prove that King Claudius, who was the prince's uncle, had killed Hamlet's father. This story has remained among the most popular and the most controversial plays around the world. It generates controversy for all the doubts that this play leaves with the readers. One of the most questioning situations in the play is the delay of Hamlet in avenging Claudius' for his father's death. As a reader this

In the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the character of Fortinbras, has been used as a foil for the main character, Hamlet. Hamlet and Fortinbras have lost their fathers to untimely deaths. Claudius killed Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, and King Hamlet killed Fortinbras' father. Both Hamlet and Fortinbras have vowed to seek revenge for the deaths of their fathers. Since the revenge tactics of Hamlet and Fortinbras are completely different, Hamlet perceives the actions of Fortinbras as better than his own and the actions of Fortinbras, then, encourage Hamlet to act without hesitating.

Throughout Hamlet, not only does the audience gather information about Hamlet’s hamartia through Laertes, they also gather information from the character of Fortinbras and how he acts. The main reason that Fortinbras is such a strong foil for Hamlet’s character is also due to the similarities in both his and Hamlet’s lives. Fortinbras and Hamlet are both princes whose father’s were killed and are now seeking vengeance to achieve justice for their father’s deaths. Due to the deaths of their fathers, they also both now have their uncle’s sitting on the thrones of Denmark and Norway.

Furthermore, Fortinbras is dead set on attacking Denmark and it seems no one can stop him. The death of his father lights a fire in him to kill at any cost and instead of taking care of his ill uncle who is on his death bed, Fortinbras leaves him alone and takes his time planning and training for his attack to kill the new king of Denmark. Shakespeare reveals that Fortinbras abandons his "impotent and bedrid" (I. ii. 29) uncle and trains his troops while "The lists, and full proportions are all made out of his subject" (I. ii. 32) to defeat Denmark showing his determination. Fortinbras wants to be the one who rights the wrong that the old king of Denmark has done to his father. He would go at any length to get the job done, thus making the reader see that he does not think things through before he does anything. Hamlet on the other hand is very indecisive about killing Claudius even though he knows Claudius is guilty of his father’s death. Although, Hamlet is not sure about what he is going to do to attack. Even though he wants to avenge his father’s death and obey the ghost, he is not as active or into the attacking

Oftentimes, the minor characters in a play can be vital and, among other things, function to further the action of the play or to reveal and illuminate the personalities of other characters. In Hamlet, Fortinbras, the Norwegian Prince, serves as the most important foil of Hamlet and provides us with the actions and emotions in which we can compare to those of Hamlet and better reveal Hamlet’s own character. Because Hamlet and Fortinbras both lost their fathers and have sworn to avenge their deaths, Fortinbras is a perfect parallel of Hamlet. He was also very crucial to the play’s ending and to bring a remedy to the corruption that has plagued Denmark.

Hamlet is as much a story of emotional conflict, paranoia, and self-doubt as it is one of revenge and tragedy. The protagonist, Prince Hamlet of Denmark, is instructed by his slain father’s ghost to enact vengeance upon his uncle Claudius, whose treacherous murder of Hamlet’s father gave way to his rise to power. Overcome by anguish and obligation to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet ultimately commits a number of killings throughout the story. However, we are not to view the character Hamlet as a sick individual, but rather one who has been victimized by his own circumstances.

Both Hamlet and Fortinbras have tragic flaws, but their flaws are direct opposite of one another. Hamlet suffers from over planning and lacking the ability to take action, but Fortinbras is the kind of man that jumps into things too quickly. For example, Hamlet takes on the responsibility to avenge his father’s death per the request of the ghost of King Hamlet. Each time Hamlet attempts to kill his Uncle Claudius, he finds another excuse to not commit. Hamlet makes his choice to not murder Claudius at the time by stating: “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; / And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven, /and so I am revenged.” (3.3.76–78). In this specific example, Hamlet chooses not to murder Claudius due to the fact that Claudius may have the opportunity to go to Heaven, since Hamlet saw him praying. Later on, Claudius makes the sarcastic comment: “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. / Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” (3.4.100–01). If Hamlet had just taken initiative instead of trying to play God, the deed would have been done and Claudius would not have went to Heaven, since his prayer was not sincere. On the other hand, Prince Fortinbras tragic flaw is that he takes too much initiative. When Hamlet’s father killed Prince Fortinbras’s father and took their scrappy piece of land, Prince Fortinbras seeks his revenge by putting lives at risk to go and get their land back out of honor. One of Prince Fortinbras’s captains makes the statement: “Truly to speak,

Hamlet, the eponymous hero of Shakespeare’s greatest work, descends swiftly into madness and paranoia after the murder of his father and the realization of his mother’s true, morally reprehensible, nature. As a result of these new responsibilities and extreme circumstances, Hamlet diverges from his usual, logical thinking into paranoia and over analysis, a condition that prevents him from trusting anyone. Hamlet, having been born a prince, is, for the first time, forced to make his own decisions after he learns of the true means of his father’s death. Another contributing factor to his madness is the constant probing of others into Hamlet’s sanity. These factors all contribute to Hamlets delay, and that delay contributes to the tragic

With Hamlet’s tragic flaw being his inability to act, he is plagued throughout the play by his immense intelligence and philosophical nature, which causes him to overanalyze each situation, rendering him unable to carry out any action in response. This is evident in the play by the frequent delay of acting out his father’s revenge due to the uncertainty of the evidence pertaining to his uncle’s crime. Hamlet’s inability to act creates a discourse between hamlet and his consciousness, generating an abundance of stress, which causes him to become increasingly frustrated as the play progresses. This frustration leads to him at moments in the play to behave in a rash and impulsive way or acting in an inappropriate manner, contradicting his methodical and reserved disposition. It is the consequences of these “inappropriate” actions that resurfaces at the plays end, to haunt the character, as Hamlet’s inability to act while using his renowned logic and intelligence ultimately leads to his eventual demise at the plays conclusion, due to his inability to act both “effectively” and “appropriately” in critical situations.

At his first appearance, young Fortinbras is shown to be inferior to Hamlet; being "of unimproved metal, hot and full" (1.1.96) Fortinbras is initially shown as a sharp contrast to the "sweet and commendable" (1.2.87) Hamlet introduced in the next scene. Despite going through emotional and mental highs and lows, Hamlet seems to constantly be in a state of regression and thought:

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is an interesting play in many ways. The character Hamlet is particularly intriguing in regards to his fatal flaw. Hamlet’s fatal flaw is a specific trait that forces him to postpone killing the king and it is this trait that drives Hamlet mad (Shakespeare 1.4.23-38). This Shakespearean tragedy is open to many interpretations of Hamlet’s fatal flaw. Two recent film productions of the play, Kenneth Branaugh’s Hamlet and the Zeffirelli’s Hamlet, each show a different fatal flaw in Hamlet. Branaugh shows his fatal flaw to be that Hamlet over thinks everything. Zeffirelli accentuates the Oepipus Complex in Hamlet meaning that Hamlet is jealous over his mother. Branaugh and Zeffirelli both use different methods to

In William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras and Hamlet find themselves in similar situations.  While Hamlet waits for the right time to avenge his father's death, Laertes learns of his father's death and immediately wants vengeance, and Fortinbras awaits his chance to recapture land that used to belong to his father.  Laertes and Fortinbras go about accomplishing their desires quite differently than Hamlet.  While Hamlet acts slowly and carefully, Laertes and Fortinbras seek their revenge with haste. Although Laertes and Fortinbras are minor characters, Shakespeare molds them in order to contrast with Hamlet.  Fortinbras and, to a greater extent, Laertes act as foils to Hamlet with respect to their motives for

William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is a captivating story revolving around the death of the King of Denmark and the reveal of how his death truly happened at the hands of his own brother – who wanted the kingdom to himself. After the king’s death, he returns as a ghost to tell his son, Hamlet, of how his death truly happened. The rest of the story entails how Hamlet took this news and begins his journey to avenge his father’s murder. As this journey progresses, the audience is able to witness Hamlet’s hamartia. Hamartia is a tragic flaw which leads to the eventual downfall of a hero or heroine. Hamlet’s hamartia is his inability to act and his indecisiveness regarding avenging his father’s murder – which results in a horrid ending for Hamlet and most of the people he knows.