Fortinbras' speech about Hamlet's character being proud, noble warrior is wrong because though he did avenge his Father's death by killing Claudius, Hamlet took a long time to do so. However I think that the fact that it is Hamlet's 'enemy' as it were saying all of these complimentray things shows that even though they have had their differences, Fortinbras can see what Hamlet is truly like as a person.
In addition to this, the audience know about the flaws of Hamlet's character, and therefore may not entirely agree with what Fortinbras was saying. The audience are given both sides to Hamlet's character throughout the play and are therefore the most likely to be able to make a fair judgement about whether or not Hamlet should be considered a hero.
In my opinion, Hamlet shouldn't be considered a hero from his actions throughout the play: although he did kill the man who murdered his father, it took him so long that I, as an audience member, lost sight of why he did all the things he had (e.g. pretend to be mad, put on the play, flash Ophelia, ect...). I would have definitely considered him much more of a hero if he had just killed Claudius at the first opputunity no matter what ther people may think as this would have shown courage and bravery... whereas I view his character as cowardly.
Fairly respectable views I think!
ReplyDeleteIt's fair to see that his revenge was indeed long winded but I'm not so sure he is a coward Lilly!
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I agree with you piont about losing sight of why Hamlet did all the weird things he did. It probably wouldn't have been better for him personally if he had just gone and killed Claudius, but it would have been better for people like Ophelia, Polonius and Laertes. He shouldn't have spent so long plotting to kill the king, he should have just done it.
ReplyDeleteYour right to ask why Shakespeare allows F to make a judgement on H as the audience have already done that. But doesn't his entrance underline that all the tragedy starts from C and H is merely caught up in it?
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