Hamlet And Hornblower Similarities

What is the difference between Shakespeare’s Hamlet and C.S. Forester’s novel Lord Hornblower? At first glance they seem as different as fire and water. Hamlet is a play about a young prince seeking revenge on his uncle for murdering his father and Lord Hornblower is a novel about an old English sea-captain fighting in a long and bitter war against the French. However; despite the obvious differences there are in fact many similarities connecting the two works of literature. They both have very brooding and unhappy main characters, both have similar themes and symbolism, and both are tales about a wretched soul who ends up bringing about the destruction of everything around them. After some careful thought it is possible to make some very

Both are very well off, as Hamlet is the prince of Denmark and Lord Horatio Hornblower is from a noble family, has been knighted, and halfway through the novel conquers a port town and makes himself a governor. Another similarity is how self-critical they are of themselves. Hamlet is constantly down on himself for his cowardice and lack of action despite of the death of his father, which is particularly evident during his “To be or not to be…” [Hamlet 3.1.58-92] speech. Hornblower is also very critical of himself, even more so than Hamlet. “Hornblower, noting his inward turmoil, cursed himself for being a sentimental old fool” [Forester 47]. Hornblower is constantly battling his emotions and it makes him feel unworthy of all his titles, because he is always riddled with fear and anxiety and never as heroic as people

In Hamlet the main issue in the play is that Gertrude and Claudius were having an affair, which is what causes Claudius to murder King Hamlet and in turn cause Hamlet to seek revenge. On top of that there is also the supposed love between Ophelia and Hamlet. Even if Hamlet only pretended to love Ophelia, the possibility was enough to draw Polonius into the story and help drive the plot later on when he killed. In Lord Hornblower, Hornblower betrays his wife Barbara overseas with a beautiful French girl named Marie who he meets after he conquers a vital French port and initiates Napoleon’s downfall. This is important to the story because after Napoleon’s “defeat” he immediately rises once more and is after Hornblower’s head, but rather than run he stays and hides in France because he doesn’t want to leave