How Is Foil Used In Hamlet

The interactions people have with others will allow individuals to gain a greater understanding of who they are as a person, and how they chose to live their lives through comparison. These are what creates character foils in literature. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet contains three major character foils that help depict Hamlet's personality, values, and reasonings behind his choices, that are demonstrated through Horatio, Laertes, and Fortinbras. Firstly, Hamlet’s companion Horatio provides aid to Hamlet throughout the play, displaying qualities that are opposite and similar to Hamlet's, such as Horatio’s sensibility, attentiveness, and loyalty. To demonstrate, Horatio’s sensibility and judicious character is first seen in the beginning of

The classic play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare is a work that has and will continue to test time. In this piece of work, there are many characters that contribute as foils. A foil is a minor character in a literary work that by the similarities and differences in what the character does or by simply being there for another character to talk to, helps the audience understand a more important character. Throughout the novel Hamlet, Shakespeare uses the main protagonist, Prince Hamlet, to show who his foils are; the reader will be able to witness contrast and similarities through the character development between Fortanbras, Laertes and Hamlet.

Hamlet Character deception is a common characteristic that has and will be a reflecting characteristic in literature for centuries. In many of William Shakespeare’s tragedies, deception, whether positive or negative, is being used to mislead, to protect characters, or to hide a crime or future crime. Analyzing why the characters are using deception against each other is very important to the reader’s understanding of the work as a whole. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, He uses Hamlet’s deception of character and also the character’s use of deception towards Hamlet to carry out the overall theme of the tragedy. The theme that is represented, is that in able to get malicious revenge, you must be able to act as if you are someone different than your true self while in turn, being able to deal with others deceiving you.

In addition, the fathers of both Hamlet and Laertes have been murdered. Hamlet’s driving motive throughout the play has always been to avenge his father’s death, and so, ironically, Hamlet’s actions result in the death of Polonius, thereby adding another point of comparison between himself and Laertes. Shakespeare then continues the irony by having Laertes willing to do what Hamlet could not, that is kill in a church. Laertes would avenge his father, no matter the cost, unlike Hamlet who claimed that nothing could prevent him from murdering King Claudius, and yet he became too cowardice to attempt. Instead, Hamlet paused and retreated when he found Claudius false-heartedly praying for salvation: “But is our circumstance and course of thought,/ ‘Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,/ To take him in the purging of his soul,/ When he is fit and season’d for his passage?/ No!”

Throughout the play Hamlet continues to act insane and even dies with the act continuing. Even after Hamlet gathers all the evidence that proves Claudius is the murder, Hamlet continues to behave in a strange way. When he mistakenly murders Polonius he does not react as a sane person would. This act enrages Laertes, who then wants to avenge his father’s death. Driven to madness by the murder of his father, Laertes, with the help of Claudius conspires to kill Hamlet.

Laertes was worried about his and his dad’s pride so he decide to murder hamlet. Laertes plans the big fencing match with Hamlet. He tricked hamlet and poisoned the tip of his sword. After he poisoned the tip of his sword everything went downhill. Laertes was being greedy because he wanted his dad to be king and stay king.

In “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”, William Shakespeare uses the sayings and behaviors of many of his minor characters to show his audiences the true characteristics of the protagonist, Prince Hamlet. This literary device is called a foil. A foil is a character whose traits help to clarify the character of the protagonist. In this famous play, Prince Hamlet has many foils. Laertes is the most effective foil to Hamlet because of how his life and reactions compare to that of Hamlet.

And will not wrong it.” (V, ii, 3882-3893) What Laertes means is that he cannot forgive Hamlet, no apology will be accepted until he comes to peace, he will do whatever it takes to feel at peace with Hamlet killing his father but until then he cannot accept the love that Hamlet is giving. Laertes is a man of his word and kills Hamlet with poison, Laertes then forgives him and dies. Although Laertes died, he still accomplished avenging the death of his father,

Laertes is the son of Polonius, who is mistakenly murdered by Hamlet. Laertes goes away to school in France, only to be told that his father was murdered and there was no ceremony. Subsequently, that fueled Laertes’ core issue, the fear of betrayal. He feared that Claudius killed his father because Polonius was close to Claudius; he is the King’s advisor. Laertes’ quest for redemption is to kill Hamlet.

This affects Claudius's behavior in the play because it reveals that he is worried that Laertes will blame him for his father's death and not listen to anyone

The character foils in hamlet mainly display Hamlets delay in killing Claudius. Laertes actions in the play help us to better understand Hamlets from a male perspective of losing and avenging a father. Whereas Ophelia helps us to see a female perspective of emotion about losing a father. Ophelia can be considered a foil character because she provides a better understanding of Hamlet.

A Deeper Analysis on Character Foils of Hamlet in Hamlet Character foils often allow the reader to better understand a protagonist’s personality and desires. In the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Horatio, Claudius, and Laertes are exemplar character foils for the protagonist, Hamlet, and under further examination, the play suggests that these character foils help the reader to really resonate with Hamlet and depict the contrasts and similarities between Hamlet and other characters in the play. These character foils are important and significant in highlighting another character’s flaws and traits in which they may not have, compared to another character in the play. To begin with, Horatio plays a huge role in being the character foil for Hamlet.

To be a foil character, one must “contrast with other characters in order to highlight particular qualities of the other characters.” Throughout Hamlet, four prominent characters are foil characters to Hamlet: Laertes, Fortinbras, Horatio and Claudius. In many cases, Hamlet and the foil characters react differently for each other in varying situations but yet show similarities in their reactions. The relationship created between Hamlet and Laertes takes a shift from the beginning of the book towards the end.

Lastly, Laertes is a character in Shakespeare’s play that is used as a character foil for Hamlet, meaning his character traits contrast noticeably with Hamlets. Laertes is a very decisive character who immediately acts on his desires, even if they are not necessarily logical or well thought out. He makes the choice to go to France to continue university without a second thought whereas Hamlet wanted to return to university but was persuaded to stay. Once Laertes hear’s of Hamlet murdering Polonius, he promptly returns to Denmark and knows undeniably that he wants revenge. He immediately begins to form a plan with Claudius to murder Hamlet, with no doubts whatsoever about his choices.

The foil character introduced is that of Fortinbras. The two could definitely be seen as very similar to each other, since they are both avenging their fathers, but in fact, the reality is that a closer look reveals the signs of the things that set them apart from each other. When the character of Fortinbras is mentioned in Act IV, Scene ii, Hamlet is quick to point out his shortcomings, such as the fact that he was willing to go to excessively large lenghths to avenge his father’s death, even if it meant wasting many lives and troops for a seemingly worthless cause. However, when Hamlet finds a moment alone, he puts his own feelings into words and confesses how he truly sees the situation, which he does after nearly every altercation that is thrown his way. This does not just show that Hamlet is crazy for always talking to himself; it shows that Hamlet is his own confidant.