What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more…
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do ‘t…
Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause.
– William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 4. Hamlet knows there is more to a person’s life than serving one’s bodily desires, otherwise we are no better than animals. He has no excuses for his inaction in revenging his father’s death. The true sign of greatness can be seen in a man who will fight over a trifle when honor is at stake. He guiltily sees his own inaction as something pathetic to be ashamed of. On the other hand he questions the rightness of Fortinbras’ actions, causing the immiment death of 20,000 men for "a fantasy or a trick of fame."