Hamlet and themes of madness and revenge

Hamlet

"How all occasions do inform against me..."

"How all occasions do inform against me..." is Hamlet's last soliloquy. The setting for this speech is one of the most dramatic and emotionally wrenching of all of the scenes of the play. Hamlet has just been expelled from the court after accidentally killing Polonius. He has also recently decided not to kill Claudius at prayer. On his way to exile in England, he watches the Norwegian army, lead by the young Fortinbras pass before him. He marvels that Fortinbras, whose father was wronged by Old Hamlet, is fighting and allowing his own countrymen to die for 'an eggshell' of a piece of land while he, Hamlet, cannot command his spirits to revenge his beloved father's death. Half sarcastically and half admirably, Hamlet says:

…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 (IV.4)

Hamlet admires Fortinbras' fortitude and single-minded pursuit of what he wants -- namely to get the land that he believes was wrongfully taken from his father. Fortinbras seems to engage in little self-searching regarding the ethics of sacrificing other men's lives for a dubious cause. A common Norwegian soldier says:

Truly to speak, and with no addition,

We go to gain a little patch of ground

That hath in it no profit but the name.

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;

Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole

A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee (IV.4)

Hamlet is angry at himself because he actually has been dishonored more than Fortinbras, but has done less to avenge that wrong. Fortinbras' has no compunction about violence and picking fights with others. This makes him a foil for Hamlet's inaction throughout the play. Fortinbras' presence was foreshadowed earlier in the play by Claudius, when Claudius remarks:

…young Fortinbras,

Holding a weak supposal of our worth,

Or thinking by our late dear brother's death

Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,

Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,

He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,

Importing the surrender of those lands

Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,

To our most valiant brother (I.2).

Unlike Hamlet, Fortinbras pursues 'what he wants' and believes he deserves what he wants. He never sees things from the perspective of other people or overthinks the moral implications of his deeds. Fortinbras challenges Claudius openly, unlike Hamlet who merely stages a play to test Claudius' guilt and tries (and fails) to kill the King at prayer. At first, Hamlet drew inspiration from a Player King's passion. In his "How all occasions" soliloquy he draws inspiration to take revenge from a real person.

Fortinbras' actions may be one reason that Hamlet decides to arrange for the murder of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern upon his return to Denmark. He tries to emulate Fortinbras' lack of concern for the fates of common people. He says to Horatio:

They are not near my conscience; their defeat

Does by their own insinuation grow:

'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes

Between the pass and fell incensed points

Of mighty opposites (V.5).