Hamlet

A foil character is a character who provides a contrast to another character. In the play, Hamlet by William Shakespeare there are multiple foil characters who not only provide a contrast to one another but share some similarities as well. All the foils in this book are foils of none other than the main character, Hamlet. The first foil character is Fortinbras, although he is not a major character in the play he does play an important role. Like Hamlet, Fortinbras’ father has also passed away and his uncle has taken over as the King of his country, Norway. However, unlike Hamlet he is not set on vengeance due to the death of his father. Fortinbras also takes leadership into his own hands by creating his own army and taking on the land of Poland when Hamlet can’t even make the decision to kill his uncle or show his true feelings about the marriage between Gertrude and Claudius. Laertes, son of Polonius and brother to Ophelia is also a close foil to Hamlet in this play. Although he does not truly become a foil to Hamlet until act 3 he still plays an important role. In act 3, Hamlet murders Polonius thinking that he is Claudius when coming out from behind the curtain. It is shortly after this scene that Laertes becomes enraged and is then made into a foil of Hamlet. They are both in similar situations of dealing with the murder of their fathers as well as the belief of having to avenge those murders. With Laertes’ revenge he does not wait patiently and think about what he must do like Hamlet does throughout the play, instead he acts on impulse and without thought. He knows and believes that he has to avenge his fathers death and has the passion and dedication to do so right away unlike Hamlet. Hamlet is patient with the avenge of his fathers death and for many logical reasons. He has to make sure what he is being told by the ghost is in fact what happened and by changing himself to act crazy and planning the play to catch Claudius’ reaction was a smart way of doing so, once he was sure and had the opportunity for it he did it, it just so happened to be the wrong person due to his act of impulse and rage rather than rationality. The final foil of Hamlet would be his friend, Horatio which in my opinion is the best foil character in this play. The way in which Horatio becomes a foil is based solely on personality and the characteristics he possesses. Horatio, very unlike Hamlet, is more of a go with the flow type of person. He doesn’t show much stress or aggression throughout the play and is more driven by thought rather than impulse like Hamlet. He is not one to act irrationally until the end of the play comes around. The death of everyone around him finally gets to him and in a way scares him, he feels the only way to escape it and what he is feeling is by committing suicide, to die with everyone else. Other than this one last scene Horatio is more rational and calm than Hamlet and acts in quite a different way causing him to be a true foil of the one and only, Hamlet.