Hamlet And Fortinbras Influence On Hamlet

All animals know how to live, eat, and kill, but what sets humans apart is God’s gift of thought. A human’s actions are influenced by their thoughts that go on through their brain. The thought system can trigger an inaction or action of a situation. Throughout the Shakespearean Tragedy Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet demonstrates his thought process where he is sometimes in conflict with carrying out initiatives. Hamlet is trapped in a situation where he must determine how he should avenge his father’s death. Vengeance for a father’s death was a common theme throughout the tragedy and characters such as Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras embody this. Three of the characters face the same situation, but approach it several different ways. Laertes

and Hamlet die in their attempts while Fortinbras was the only one to survive. Two of the characters fall down to anger and pain, while the other still stood. Throughout the tragedy, Shakespeare is trying to emphasize the importance of thought processes to a human’s action and a common tragic flaw in every human being, the fall to anger.
Starting with Hamlet, emphasis of the importance of thought processes was prevalent in his buildup in avenging his father. The tragedy begins with the discovery of King Hamlet’s death from natural causes. When someone does not die from natural causes, their ghost comes back to haunt. Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost and was told that King Hamlet was killed by Claudius, his brother. Hamlet vowed to avenge for his father and kill Claudius. While trying to avenge his father, Hamlet goes through a series of conflicts with himself and inaction over action. Hamlet thinks over what he should do, and makes sure if his father’s ghost said the truth. He took every single motive step by step. He made sure he put a lot of thought to everything, tried to push away his anger from striving him to commit action and go straight for the kill. Shakespeare lets the reader know that Hamlet is aware “What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time, be but to sleep and feed?” (Shakespeare 107). He exclaims this soliloquy, after he speaks to the captain that claims he is trying to take over pointless land. The significance of this is that he is basically restating that everyone should use their power of thought to take action, Shakespeare’s emphasis is clearly demonstrated here. Hamlet knows how a human should live and also understands the strength of anger. He states “How all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge!” (Shakespeare 107). The anger and all the many different events fuel him to strike Claudius down because he is feeling pain when he is not doing it. This is a tragic flaw during this play because Hamlet is not strong enough to face this pain, this inclination developed by his anger. When Hamlet is in the King and Queen’s room with his mom, his pain pushed him to kill Claudius, his anger fueled him to stab him. The end result was brutal, he did not kill Claudius, but instead killed Polonius by accident. Of course, the killing of Polonius led him to fail because he did not kill the person he intended to, also Hamlet commits a major sin. When one falls down to anger and pain, they become vulnerable to failure and dragged down to their grave. Hamlet does not use his thought process, not even considering someone else could be in the curtains instead of Claudius. Through Hamlet’s story, Shakespeare emphasizes the importance and strength of thought processes and anger.
Aside from Hamlet’s story, Laertes’ anger striven vengeance demonstrates the strength and importance of anger and thought processes. In contrast to Hamlet, Laertes had less control over his anger. Hamlet’s approach is more thoughtful, but their attempts were very similar. When hearing that he needed to avenge his father, Hamlet would decide on what to do, but Laertes comes bolting into the room, angry, ready to strike someone down. A significance in Laertes attempt to strike the Hamlet was when Claudius states, “How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I this will give it start again. Therefore let’s follow” (Shakespeare 126). Claudius understands that anger can cause trouble and create chaos, he wants to calm Claudius down so he can focus on killing Hamlet and not make himself a target since Laertes almost killed Claudius. He tries to let Laertes’ rage pass. Claudius constructs a plan where he can use Laertes rage to eliminate Hamlet. He devises a duel between the two because since Laertes is fueled with anger, his thought during the duel would be to kill Hamlet at all costs and not during the fencing match. Another substantial line from Laertes was, “My Lord, I’ll hit him now, And yet it is almost against my conscience” (Shakespeare 150). Laertes’ statement demonstrated that he was not in control of his own hand. He was not really putting thought into it and deeply controlled by anger. During the duel, on a series of attacking each other, Laertes falls off from the balcony onto his back. There were many ways to die for Laertes, either getting stabbed or poisoned, but for Shakespeare specifically the fall is quite symbolistic. Laertes could have died from a sword, poison, or anything else but there was a purpose as to why he fell. Him dropping down is a motif of the fall to the clutches of anger. This demonstrates the effect of what anger can do to someone. His tragic flaw, falling to anger, causes his tragic death.
Unlike Hamlet and Laertes.

Fortinbras, a Norway prince, was calm and spirited, while using his thought processes to avenge his father’s death, relating to the importance of not falling down to anger and use of thought processes. The Norway prince, shared the same tragic event of losing his father as Laertes and Hamlet, though Fortinbras has proven the most successful character because he is the last one living. Hamlet’s bold words spoke of Fortinbras after meeting with the captain of Fortinbras’s army, “Look at this massive army led by a delicate and tender prince whose so puffed up with divine ambition” (Shakespeare 108). The wording is extremely substantial because Hamlet brings up that he is brought by divine ambition, a desire to reach a goal. Fortinbras is composed, in control of his body, and of course not controlled by anger, but a goal. The prince of Norway devised several plans by reclaiming land once lost, and waiting until it was the right time to strike. He was more strategic than Hamlet and Laertes, and did not allow anger to consume him. When he arrives in Denmark, he comes at the right time because chaos occurs leaving everyone dead. His action of attack was not so sudden, but put within a process under the control of his brain and not anger. Fortinbras is the character that Shakespeare wants human’s to be, strong enough to control anger and use thought

processes.
Through the ideas of Shakespearean critics, the presence of the author’s message on anger and thought processes is supported.

As a matter of fact, Shakespearean Critic, Kenneth Chan states, “We must keep two things in mind. First, Shakespeare makes it clear that Hamlet is acutely aware of a delay. Second, Shakespeare also makes it clear that Hamlet himself is not sure why he delays” (Chan). With regards to this, it demonstrates the strength of anger on someone’s initiatives. His anger confuses Hamlet on why he has not killed Claudius, it fuels him to do it and he is confused on why he does not. T.S Eliot in her critical essay states, “The intense feeling, ecstatic or terrible, without an object or exceeding its object, is something which every person of sensibility has known; it is doubtless a study to pathologists” (Eliot), explains the significance of anger and what it can do to a human being. It is something that an every human being feels, no matter how strong or how weak, no matter what rank one is in a society. The only importance is how that person will face the feeling. Hamlet and Fortinbras, both princes, are equal rank, but Hamlet falls to anger, killing Polonius. Through a Shakespearean critics’ view, the author had the message about anger and thought processes in mind while writing the

play.
Throughout the play Hamlet, Shakespeare emphasizes the strength and importance of anger and thought processes. This message the playwright delivers can play in everyone’s daily lives. Many criminals today do not think about whether or not their actions are morally justified or not, while most can be driven by anger. Anger is a dangerous element that makes up people, it can lead to actions that someone may not want to do. Shakespeare used Hamlet and Laertes to demonstrate anger’s impact. It can lead to what they do not tend to do and even dig their graves. Fortinbras, however, was composed throughout the play, controlling his anger, and became successful at the end. He was the icon that the author wants humans to be. The idea of Fortinbras thinking analytically and the one becoming successful at the end reveals a message that humans need to put thought in everything they do. Shakespeare wants people to be able to control their anger, because it has not only taken over an ordinary person, but princes and royalty.