Hamlet Group

Question:

brooklynkate09
brooklynkate09
Student
High School - 12th Grade

In Act 4 Scene 4 of "Hamlet", Fortinbras is said to be moving over the countryside. Where is he going? Why?

Rate question:

Posted by brooklynkate09 on Wednesday April 15, 2009 at 10:05 AM and tagged with act 4, characters, countryside, fortinbras, hamlet.

Answers:


  1. danylyshen Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    Fortinbras is moving his troops over Denmark to do battle and reclaim lost land of his father's in Poland. Fortinbras had made an arrangement with Claudius to cease hostilities in Denmark, but he is still eager to reclaim lands lost in his father's fall to Hamlet Senior. Act four scene four is a powerful scene where Hamlet meditates on how trivial the march is and how stupefying it is that the soldiers march to war and possibly their doom for such a petty reason as a small "plot" of ground. He wonders at the sense of marching twenty-thousand men to "their graves like beds" (4.4.62). His meditation considers the nature of man, man's reason, spirit, and divine inspiration.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/other-characters-descriptions

    Rate answer:

    Posted by danylyshen on Wednesday April 15, 2009 at 11:26 AM