Compare and contrast Hamlet and Fortinbras in William Shakespeares Hamlet. How are the two figures alike? How are they different?

The tenseat the beginning of the play is explained byas being due principally to the
Danish fear of young"Of unimproved mettle hot and full" attacking to recover the lands
his father lost. He is therefore quickly established as a contrast and a foil to , in a similar
position but of a very different temperament: hot-headed yet determined.

himself contrasts the two of them when he sees Fortinbras making ready "to go gain a little
patch of ground." He describes Fortinbras satirically:

Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender
prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
Makes mouths at the invisible
event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death and
danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell.

But there is
some admiration in his, and the contrast is ultimately to Fortinbras's advantage. If it is
faintly ridiculous that the Norwegian prince will do all this "for an egg-shell," it
is worse than ridiculous that...