“I cannot live to hear the news from England. But I do prophesy th’ election lights on Fortinbras; he has my dying voice. So tell him, with th’ occurrents, more and less, which have solicited--the rest is silence.” -page 283
When I first read this passage, I was confused--why would Hamlet want Fortinbras to lead his country? The two characters have never met, and Fortinbras has been leading a military charge on Denmark for the entire play. Why, then, suddenly make him king? It makes no sense, but then again, neither does Hamlet, most of the time.
The first thing worth noting is that Hamlet really doesn’t care about the state of Denmark. He thinks it an awful prison, and, although he has been a man for some time, he has no desire to rise to the throne. Furthermore, he finds the people involved in government (namely Polonius) are stupid and weak-spined. In this respect, it does make sense that he would assign someone so seemingly inept for the job.
However, there is more to it than that. We do have one scene where Hamlet encounters the captain of Fortinbras’ army, and it inspires him to further his plans. There is, therefore, some admiration for Fortinbras within Hamlet. However, I feel it is more than that. I keep coming back to “tell him, with th’ occurrents, more and less, which have solicited--the rest is silence”. The occurrents, of course, are violent. Awful things have happened since Hamlet’s father died; many others died, a war raged on outside, and betrayals were rampant within the castle walls. And then “the rest is silence”: clearly, Hamlet is disgusted by all that has happened, just as much as the people around him appeared to be disgusted with him. His choice, then, makes perfect sense: he has chosen someone who has been far removed from all that has happened, someone who will not make choices biased by anything that has occurred. Someone like Fortinbras.
I believe that Fortinbras's military charge ended up being against Poland. I agree that the choice of Fortinbras as king is a bit out of the blue, and that Hamlet does not much care for Denmark himself. However, it may be argued that Hamlet wants what is best for Denmark to honor his father, and sees that Fortinbras is fit for the job. Your argument is well developed, and flows well. For the whole, good job!
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