Grommersoft

Act 4, Scene 4 Summary

On a plain in Denmark, en route to England, Hamlet encounters vestiges of the Dane's almost foe, Fortinbras, who now goes after a meaningless "little patch of ground" in Poland for which many will now die. The thought of all this warring and death over something so little steels Hamlet to possess, unyielding, "bloody" thought of revenge. For, if Fortinbras will die over nothing, Hamlet, who has an incestuous mother and a murdering father, has cause for concentration and focus.

Act 4, Scene 4 Analysis

A small encounter with Fortinbras small determined army now reminds Hamlet, who is leaving is home, not to pause in his reflections of revenge. He has no excuse not to focus on the destruction of Claudius until he has completely destroyed him. This is yet another redundant, but telling, rehearsing of Hamlet's fatal injunction to himself- seek ye first the kingdom of revenge- not God, justice or love, but revenge.