Fortinbras, the nephew of the King of Norway, a prince, "delicate and tender," but spirited and ambitious, forms a contrast to both Hamlet and Horatio. He is a man of action, and is never happy unless engaged in "some enterprise that hath a stomach in it." Being, as Horatio says, "Of unimproved metal hot and full," he engages in martial enterprises merely for the sake of fighting. He furnishes Hamlet an example which he is quick to admire, but powerless to follow. "Examples gross as earth, exhort me," says Hamlet,
Witness this army, of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince;
Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal, and unsure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell. -- IV. iv. 46.
Like every other young man in this play, Fortinbras has a
serious case of daddy issues. His dad Old Fortinbras, former King of Norway,
made a bet with Old Hamlet and wound up losing his life and some important
Norwegian territory in the process. Naturally, young Fortinbras now has to
reclaim the land his father lost.
Sound familiar? Of course. But
while Hamlet sits around contemplating life and death, Fortinbras takes
immediate action by raising an army to reclaim Norway's lost territories.
Though his uncle (the current king of Norway) at first convinces Fortinbras not
to attack Denmark, in the end, prince Fortinbras helps himself to the Danish
throne.
Behind the stories of both
Fortinbras and Hamlet is the question of why their uncles are wearing the
crowns that should, in the normal pattern of who-gets-to-be-king, go to them
(the sons). Fortinbras deals by going out and conquering other countries;
Hamlet, in contrast, only mentions the fact that Claudius has "popped in
between the election and [his] hopes" (in other words, his hopes of
becoming the King of Denmark). He distracts himself with thinking, not with
conquering.
Our prince compares himself
explicitly to Fortinbras when he passes Fortinbras's armies in the fields and
he sees Fortinbras as a model for how he should behave. "To be great / is
not to stir without great argument / but greatly to find quarrel in a straw /
when honor's at the stake" (4.4.52-55). In other words, Hamlet realizes
that Fortinbras doesn't have very good reasons for leading an army against
Poland —but reasons don't really matter. Great men don't need a reason to
preserve their family's honor. Fortinbras, like Laertes, is an example of
action with little thought —precisely the opposite of Hamlet.
Our question: why is
Fortinbras successful while Laertes isn't? (Maybe because he's not in love with
his sister? Just saying.
Adapted from shakespeare-online.com & shmoop.com
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