Discuss the character and role of Fortinbras in the play Hamlet. or In what way can Fortinbras be considered a character whose chief function in the play is to serve its Structural demands?

Discuss the character and role of Fortinbras in the play Hamlet.

or

In what way can Fortinbras be considered a character whose chief function in the play is to serve its Structural demands?

Ans. A minor character, young Fortinbras, the nephew to the King of Norway, makes only a brief appearance in the play, and contributes in no way to the development of its action. .However, he has been drawn as a foil to Hamlet, and serves to highlight his inaction and irresolution.

Fortinbras is a prince, "delicate and tender", but high spirited and ambitious. He is a contrast to both Hamlet and Horatio. He is indeed a man of action in the play and is never happy unless engaged in "some enterprise that hath a stomach in it". He engages in war and battle merely for the pleasure of fighting or for the sake of honour and not for any material advantage. Hamlet envies and admires his promptness in action. He is obedient to his old ailing uncle, the King of Norway, who appreciating his spirit of adventure, pardons his indiscretion and helps him invade Poland so that he may satisfy his urge for action.

Hamlet and Fortinbras never actually meet during the play. Fortinbras is just spoken of in Act I, Sc. I; he leaves before Hamlet enters in Act IV, Sc. 4; and he arrives at Danish court just after Hamlet's death in the last scene. Yet Hamlet does come across Fortinbras's army in Act IV, Sc. 4, and this incident serves to  contrast—both for the audience and for Hamlet himself—the daring, honorable and assertive character of Fortinbras with the uncertain and aggressive Hamlet. Witnessing Fortinbras's troops preparing to fight for a cause which, to Hamlet, seems of so little concern, inspires the Danish Prince to renew his efforts to seek revenge on Claudius for a cause which is of comparatively greater importance. In Fortinbras's efforts to regain his father's lost territory and Hamlet's struggle to avenge the wrongs committed against his father by Claudius, there is an evident parallel. Each son accomplishes his mission by the end of the play, and though Hamlet forfeits his life for this purpose, he dies an honorable death, as Fortinbras confirms when he accords Hamlet soldiers' rites. It is by Fortinbras that we can measure the change in Hamlet from the adolescent scholar at the beginning of the play, to the young man more mature in thought and prepared for action in Act IV. sc, 4 to the brave and heroic avenger  figure he becomes just before his death. It is significant that the play is framed between the military preparations of Fortinbras, mentioned in the first scene, and the timely arrival of Fortinbras in the final scene, when he claims the throne of Denmark and has Hamlet nobly carried from the stage with "soldiers' music and rites of war."