How Is Hamlet A Good Leader

The Search for an Honorable Leader in Hamlet and Macbeth

Hamlet clearly defines a good leader in this passage in Hamlet;

"Look here, upon this picture, and on this,

The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.

See, what a grace was seated on this brow;

Hyperions' curls; the front of Jove himself;

An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;

A station like the herald Mercury

New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;

A combination and a form indeed,

Where every God did seem to set his seal

To give the world assurance of a man." Act III Sc. IV

He states that an individual must attain the qualities: grace, leadership, well roundedness, and reverence. Using Hamlet's definition,

He was a war-hero, and was uninterested in what society perceived him to be. His superstition and dependence on the witches visions show his weakness as a character, and especially as a leader. His beliefs in the witches eventually lead him down the wrong path when he returns to the witches for another proclamation of their visions, which all are apparently true, but misunderstood by Macbeth. In the end, as the visions become reality, Macbeth realizes that he has failed to grasp a hold of the tangible aspects of his life, and was too concentrated on the unknown. He states in Act IV scene I, ""Tell me now, thou unknown power--Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution thanks; Thou hast harp'd my fear aright: but one word more." Leading up to this outburst, Macbeth had been speaking with the witches, and trying to persuade them to tell him that he would rule forever. This shows Macbeth's weakness, not acting with grace, he let his guard down to superstition, which is modern day philosophy is considered childish and everything short of acting with

He is well respected and a man of honor. What solidifies Fortinbras' position of an authority figure and man of leadership is in the last scene of Hamlet, as he takes his seat as King, he notices the character Hamlet on the floor dead. What is expected is that he would make a mockery of Hamlet, being the son of the man who murdered his father and forever ruined his life, but instead, he does what is most noble in the heart, and states, "Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage , for he was likely , had he been put on, to have proved most royal; and for his passage, the soldier music and right of war, Speak loudly for him." (Act V Sc. II) In his closing statement, Fortinbras shows his grace and well-roundedness by honoring Hamlet, and understanding that he too went through what Fortinbras himself had to go through his entire adult life, living without his father. For those reasons, Fortinbras is a true leader, and the best representation in these two plays of a leader according to Hamlet's