Hamlet 4:4 Flashcards
Fortinbras in 4:4
- dragging his army across Denmark to Poland to reclaim a small piece of land (described as having ‘no profit but the name’) - aka in the cause of honour
- he acts as a foil to Hamlet who doesn’t act for honour
Hamlet in 4:4
- contrasted to Fortinbras, has another self-deprecating soliloquy
- a man struggling to find his way between different ideals of masculinity: one exalting bold action based on honour and vengeance, the other valuing considered action based on reason and justice
how does the Captain speak about the land Fortinbras is out to reclaim
- ‘Against some part of Poland.’ - flippant?
- ‘We go to gain a little patch of ground/ That hath in it no profit but the name.’
‘Two thousand souls and…’
‘Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats/ Will not debate the question of this straw.’ - Hamlet
- by ‘straw’ he means a trivial matter
‘This is th’… and peace,/ That…’
‘This is th’imposthume of much wealth and peace,/ That inward breaks, and shows no cause without,/ Why the man dies.’ - Hamlet
- the abscess caused by prosperity and wealth that bursts unknown inside, showing no cause of death outside
- Hamlet uses imagery of corruption and disease to present the commonly held belief that too much wealth and peace led to war
‘How all occasions do inform…’
‘How all occasions do inform against me,/ And sur my dull revenge!’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- metaphor: ‘thy almost blunted purpose’ and ‘keen’ for a sharp blade
‘What is a man,/ If his chief…’
‘What is a man,/ If his chief good and market of his time/ Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more!’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- if he does nothing but exist and sleep, he is no more than a beast
‘gave us not/ That capability and…’
‘gave us not/ That capability and godlike reason/ To fust in us unus’d.’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- Hamlet has ‘godlike reason’ where Fortinbras has ‘divine ambition’
‘Now, whether it be/ Bestial…’
‘Now, whether it be/ Bestial oblivion or some craven scruple’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- ‘Bestial oblivion’ refers to animal indifference
- ‘craven scruple’ refers to cowardly restraint (‘three parts coward’)
‘A thought which, quarter’d, hath but…’
‘A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom/ And ever three parts coward’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- echoes the ‘Am I a coward?’
- action vs inaction
‘I do not know/ Why yet I live…’
‘I do not know/ Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do’,/ Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means,/ To do’t.’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- self-deprecating
- monosyllabic (‘cause’ ‘will’ ‘stength’ ‘means’)
‘Witness this army, of such…’
‘Witness this army, of such mass and charge,/ Led by a delicate and tender prince’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- Fortinbras acts over nothing (‘invisible event’ ‘egg-shell’ ‘straw’)
- Hamlet doesn’t have these virtues, arguably we are not given the impression that Fortinbras is ‘delicate’ or ‘tender’ either (Hamlet could be referring to sensitivity to questions of honour or his youth)
‘delicate and tender prince,/ Whose spirit, with divine…’
‘delicate and tender prince,/ Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff’d,/ Makes mouths at the invisible event’ - Hamlet (soliloquy) about Fortinbras
- ‘divine ambition’ vs ‘godlike reason’ (direct comparison of H and F)
- ‘mouths at the invisible event’ - scorns the unknown in contrast to Hamlet’s tendency to consider everything
‘Makes mouths at the…’
‘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.’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- facing ‘death’ ‘danger’ and ‘fortune’ for nothing (‘egg-shell’) - sort of mocking fate
‘Rightly to be great…’
‘Rightly to be great/ Is not to stir without great argument,/ But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,/ When honour’s at the stake.’ - Hamlet (soliloquy)
- to be great is to find something to fight over in nothing when honour is at risk
- Fortinbras is ‘great’, Hamlet is not
