Hamlet criticizes himself

Act 4, Scene 4 pg.169

Hamlet criticizes his delay in revenging his father’s death. It is forgetfulness or

too much thought that stops him? Prompted by his encounter with Fortinbras’s army, he
resolves to speed to his revenge.
Hamlet marvels the humans that are able to act so violently and purposefully for
so little gain. By comparison, he has a great deal to gain from seeking his own bloody
revenge on Claudius and yet he is still delays and fails to act toward his purpose.
Disgusted with himself for having failed to gain his revenge on Claudius, he
declares that from that moment onwards, his thoughts will be bloody.
Somehow, he admits that everything he encounters prompts him to revenge. Yet,
Fortinbras indirectly teaches him that honour must be always defended, since he has a
great cause and yet does nothing, but sees thousands of men about to die for a trivial
cause. From now on, I will pursue only revenge, he says. He is convincing himself and
urging himself that he has CAUSE and WILL and STRENGHT and MEANS to do the
revenge. But it is almost impossible to believe that his thoughts will really be ‘bloody’
from that moment on.
This scene restores the focus of the play to the theme of human action. Hamlet’s
encounter with the Norwegian captain serves to give Hamlet another example of the will
to action that he lacks. He is impressed by the willingness of Fortinbras to risk his own
life and thousands more to reclaim a worthless piece of land in Poland. Of course, now
again he fails to put this exclamation ‘MY THOUGHTS BE BLOODY’ into action, as he
has failed at every previous turn to achieve his revenge on Claudius. He says ‘my
thoughts be bloody’, rather than ‘my deeds be bloody’.