Question

What actions does hamlet see as degrading to the nobility of humans?

Answer 1

This idea comes from Hamlet's soliloquy in Act IV, Scene 4.

In this speech, he says that sleeping and eating are the actions of beasts; people should rise above that, since people have been given "capability and godlike reason." It stands to reason that failing to use reason is degrading to the nobility of humans.

Then he considers great armies, and he thinks how men will wage a bloody war over something practically worthless ("an eggshell"). This is also degrading to the nobility of humans, to wage a bloody war over nothing.