Foils In Hamlet

[Bevington presents an in-depth survey of the dramatic action and major themes of
Hamlet The critic initially focuses on Hamlet's role in the play, examining his interactions with the other characters as well as his several soliloquies in an attempt to determine his "tragic flaw, " the diifect in atragic hero which leads to his downfall. fA soliloquy is aspeech delivered while the speaker is alone, devised to inform the reader of what the character is thinking or to provide essential information concerning other participants in the action.] Bevington also comments on the dramatic structure of Hamlet especially Shakespeare's balancing the tragedy with many foils. A foil refers to any literary character that through strong contrast
accentuates
Not only is he baffled by riddling visions and by commands seemingly incapable of fulfillment, but he is the victim of misinterpretation by those around him.
Well may the dying Hamlet urge his friend Horatio to "report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied" [V. ii. 340], for no one save Horatio has caught more than aglimpse of Hamlet's true situation. We as omniscient audience, hearing the inner thoughts of Claudius as well as of Hamlet and learning of Polonius' or Laertes' secret plottings with the king, should remember that we know vastly more than the play's characters, and that this discrepancy between our viewpoint and theirs is one of
Shakespeare's richest sources of dramatic
Claudius is to outward appearances an apt choice. Polonius and other reputedly sage counselors welcome the rule of one so fit for soothing public utterance and for pragmatic foreign diplomacy. Claudius, to his credit, disarms the threat of invasion by young Fortinbras of Norway that hangs so ominously over the beginning of the play. The king's instructions to the ambassadors, Voltemand and Cornelius, are seasoned by years of hard political calculation. His marriage with the dead king's widow, even if technically incestuous, gives an auraof continuity to the new reign. It is without conscious irony that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, appointed guardians of the unpredictable Hamlet, echo great Elizabethan commonplaces in their defense of legitimate monarchical authority. The life of their king is threatened, and they know that majesty "Dies not alone, but like agulf doth draw What's near it with it" [III.