Revenge in Hamlet It is a natural human instinct for a son to feel offended by the death of his father. Thus is the case of the two young princes, both repelled by the sudden death of King Hamlet into destinies as avengers of their fallen fathers, who emerge to permit comparisons in Shakespeare's great tragedy Hamlet. In the first act of the play Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, and Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, are both fatherless heirs whose uncles occupy the throne of their respected countries. Both princes seek revenge for the events surrounding their fathers' deaths while their uncles and kings oppose their nephews, plotting to achieve their own goals. However, from what we learn from the brief marginal accounts of Fortinbras and the central antics of Hamlet, it is evident that they also have quite different characteristics. Although these two princes have similar positions and supreme intentions, the force that drives them, the means to achieve their goals and the results are dissimilar and prove that in the end the prince who follows the advice "action speaks louder than words" prevails. Although it is the king's succession in Denmark that ultimately drives the two princes to avenge their fathers, the unique reasons for taking such vows are different. Instigating the duel between the kings for the titles of the conquered lands, King Fortinbras lost his life and therefore the estate of Norway to the strong arm of King Hamlet, rightfully so. Consequently, it is upon the death of the Danish king that the young Fortinbras takes action to recover the honor and lands lost in his father's fatal battle. The ambitious Norwegian prince respected the terms of his father's death until the change of the Danish throne...... middle of paper ......en. With a direct and irrefutable action, Fortinbras has lost his father and with the same method he tries to take revenge. Likewise, King Hamlet's death from grief disguised as betrayal serves as a means to Prince Hamlet's goal. In the reasoning of "an eye for an eye", avenging princes honor their fathers by pursuing their opponents using a personification of the weapons used to kill their fathers. Works Cited Bradley, AC. Shakespearean tragedy: lessons on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. New York: Penguin Books, 1991. Danson, Lawrence. "Tragic alphabet". Modern critical interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. Rpt. from Tragic Alphabet: Shakespeare's Linguistic Drama. N. p.: Yale University Press, 1974.Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. TJB Spencer. New York: Penguin, 1996.