Essay about The Role of Fortinbras in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Fortinbras is a stronger political leader then Hamlet, and his actions to avenge his father’s death show Hamlets cowardly behaviour. Fortinbras is a strong political leader and takes rapid action to seek revenge for his father’s death. Fortinbras is willing to risk not only his life but also the lives of two thousand soldiers to fight for his father’s vengeance. The captain says to Hamlet, “ We go to gain a little patch of ground/That hath in it no profit but the name.” (4.4.18-19). Fortinbras is willing to fight for worthless land if it is in his father’s name. The land may not be worth anything, but to Fortinbras it is worth the battle to honour his father. This proves Fortinbras is a strong political leader because he is showing his

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.

Fortinbras is a manly warrior and shows the ability to take action. Similarly, Laertes is known for being a good fighter, a man of action, and having the ability to lead. During the play Laertes states, “To cut his throat i’th’ church”(IV.vii. 98). Laertes here says he would go as far as to kill Hamlet in the church, something almost unheard of. This portrays Laertes’ manly characteristics as being a rash and a well known fighter. The young Prince Hamlet, however, denies a chance to take his own revenge, as shown when he

As much similar they are, Hamlet and Fortinbras have several differences. A major distinction between Hamlet and Fortinbras is that Fortinbras is more aggressive with his intent. In Claudius's opening speech, he says

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was

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.

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.

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,

In Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Hamlet there are similarities between Hamlet, Fortinbras, and Laertes. They do have some character differences but they face many of the same challenges and are put in similar situations. All three of the men have lost their fathers and are seeking to avenge their deaths in some way. Hamlet is contemplating killing Claudius, Fortinbras has gathered an army to reclaim lands that his father lost, and Laertes will do whatever it takes to get revenge for Polonius’ death. The main difference between the three men is that Fortinbras and Laertes are willing to do whatever it takes to reach their goal while Hamlet spends the majority of his time in thought trying to decide the right thing to do.

Fortinbras, as Hamlet describes, is able to act without any fear of death “When honor’s at the stake.” (55) Everything that Fortinbras is seems to be the opposite of Hamlet, even though they are both seeking revenge and have lost a father. Thus Fortinbras’s presence reminds Hamlet of his own goals he originally set out for. It was due to Fortinbras and his army of “twenty thousand men” who “Go to their graves like beds” that allowed Hamlet to question his own courage and thus see his flaw. His fear of his own death which was supposedly decided in his fourth soliloquy is now once again troubling his own mind. Should he risk his life and face the unknown afterlife in his quest of vengeance? His intellect portrayed in the fourth soliloquy steered him into the belief that he should choose life over suicide, for fear of the “undiscovered country” (81) in which “no travelers return” (82). Though the image of “twenty thousand men” marching to their deaths and fighting for a piece of land which is not even “tomb enough and continent/To hide the slain” gives reason for Hamlet to doubt his courage as he is afraid of death whereas Fortinbras and his army is not. In Hamlet’s book, this is a suicidal attempt, the act which he decided against in the fourth soliloquy. Hamlet’s intelligence thus portrays his madness as it is not his ability

In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses revenge as a major theme present throughout the work. Revenge plays a crucial role in the development of Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, and Laertes, son of Polonius. All three men seek revenge for the murder of their fathers. Revenge can be interpreted as a separate character in Hamlet. Revenge is set to overcome anyone who seeks it. Initially, after each of the murders, every son had a definite course of action to obtain vengeance. Or in Hamlet's case the choice was to seek no vengeance. As the play unfolds, each young man approaches the desire for revenge and chooses a different path towards gaining it based on the guidance of another character in

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