William Shakespeare's grand tragedy Hamlet is a tale of revenge that coupled with uncertainty and the complexity of action ultimately ends in disaster for all characters involved. In Act IV, Scene IV Hamlet is in argument with himself. He punishes himself for not acting soon enough after encountering Fortinbra's and hearing of his plan to claim Poland. Hamlet is impressed by Fortinbra's motivation to action that Hamlet himself lacks. At the end of his argument with himself he declares, "My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!" to instill a new confidence within himself to execute his fathers revenge. By looking at the language in the passage we can see examples of the inaction/uncertainty theme present in most of Hamlet's inner conversations. This is important because Hamlet's inaction/uncertainty ultimately leads to his downfall.
             Shakespeare's uses patterns in this soliloquy to illustrate Hamlet's inaction very subtly throughout the passage. Patterns are evident all over the passage in the form of rhetorical questions. The first of these questions is... "How stand I then, that have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd, excitements of my reason and blood, and let all sleep?" (Lines 57 – 60) Overall, in this first question he doubts himself by basically asking what can he say for himself ("How stand I then...") when he clearly has motive to take revenge for his father's death and mother's corruption ("excitements of my reason and blood")...but does nothing ("and let all sleep..."). Therefore, this is a great example of Hamlet's uncertainty in the situation he has been put into.
             This second question is the continuation of the first question but Hamlet is responding to the first question in question. Strange. The second question is..."While to my shame I see...twenty thousand men, that for a fantasy and tric...