Hamlet has come to realize that we humans don't have
control over everything and that fate plays a large role in our lives. We just have to
accept that, work with that, and make the best of it. When he is talking to Hortatio he
explains, "There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will." He
means that he get to make a lot of the decisions of our life (rough hew) but that
God/Fate/Divinity shapes us too.
Later in the act, after
Hortatio cautions him about going into this sword fight with Laertes, Hamlet says,
"There is a special providence even in the fall of a sparrow ... the readiness is all."
He is telling Hortatio that God is even aware of the death of insignifant bird like a
sparrow, and that all Hamlet can do, ultimately, is be as ready and he can for what may
come. He can't control anything but himself and his reaction to the events around him.
This is a dramatic change from the man who accomplished very little for the first four
acts of the play.
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