The Dramatic Conclusion of Hamlet In the concluding scene, the action is fast, moving swiftly to a final catastrophe involving the deaths of all the main characters except Horatio and Fortinbras It is significant that the play is framed between the military preparations of Fortinbras, mentioned in the fist scene, and the timely arrival of Fortinbras in the final scene, when he claims the throne of Denmark and has Hamlet nobly carried from the stage with “soldier’s music and rites of war.” Hamlet and Fortinbras never actually meet during the play. Fortinbras is just spoken of in Act I, scene 1; he leaves before Hamlet enters in Act IV scene 4; and he arrives at the Danish court just after Hamlet’s death in the last scene. Yet Hamlet does come across Fortinbras’ army in Act IV, Scene 4, and this incident serves to contrast—both for the audience and for Hamlet himself—the daring, honourable and assertive character of Fortinbras with the uncertain and aggressive Hamlet Witnessing Fortinbras’ efforts to regain his father’s lost territory and Hamlet’s struggle to avenge the wrongs committed against his father by Claudius, there is an evident parallel. Each son accomplishes his mission by the end of the play, and although Hamlet forfeits his life for this purpose, he dies and honourable death, which Fortinbras confirms when he accords Hamlet soldiers’ rites It is in comparison with Fortinbras that we can measure the change in Hamlet from the adolescent scholar at the beginning of the play, to the young man more mature in thought and more prepared for action in Act IV, Scene 4, to the brave avenger figure he becomes before his death