Horatio And Hamlet Foils

Hamlet
The different characters with various characteristics make the play with more color and plots. In the play there are several foils exist within the characters which are interesting to look into. Hamlet and Horatio, Hamlet and Fortinbras, Hamlet and Claudius and Hamlet and Laertes are all have more or less some qualities that are opposite.
Compare to Hamlet’s irrational action Horatio is more rational which can be shown in act1 scene4, where Horatio stops Hamlet to go deeply into the forest. “Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life in a pin’s fee,”(1,4,67-68) definitely Hamlet is a brave man as he is not dear any circumstances. However, he is not considering anything else. On another hand, Horatio is more clear mind as he says, ”be ruled. You shall not go”(1,4,85) it’s not that he is coward or frighten(although he might be) but he has considered it clearly that Hamlet might be in danger after all.
Different form Horatio whose meaning for Hamlet is so important that he can share everything with him.
Fortimbras’ roll in this play is too small that has only be talked about from other people’s words. However, we can still see the opposite characteristics between Hamlet and Fortinbras. Hamlet is aggressive without control while Fortinbras is aggressive with control. After Hamlet knows the murder of his father which has been committed by his uncle he determined to take revenge almost right away without any doubt. In the contrast, Fortinbra obeys his uncle’s order and swear not to invade Norway any more although he is aggressive and good at
fighting.
Here comes the most important protagonists which is Hamlet and Claudius. Hamlet is a character full of love without desire and greedy while Claudius’s characteristic is full of desire and greedy without love and kindness. Hamlet loves his father so much that he is still mourning for his father two month after his death. He loves his father so much that he can not except his mother’s marriage with his uncle so soon.. he loves his father so much that he is dear to enter the forest to see the ghost regardless all the dangerous factors. He loves Ophelia that he offers his special attention as a prince to her. He loves Ophelia that he stands up to face the dangerous at her funereal. Although Hamlet only expresses his hatred to his mother, however, why would he be so angry if he has never loved his mother? In one word, he is a character full of love and his love is directly and purely. On the contrast, Claudius is a character full of desire and greedy without love. Old Hamlet is a very generous and brave king as everybody says. Claudius is the one who kills his brother without any mercy and takes his crown and the queen. This action itself is so sinful that nobody is able to be forgiven with that action which makes Claudius a more sinful character as he is killing his dear brother.
Although Hamlet is not confederate enough when he meets the ghost, however, compare to Laertes Hamlet is more considerate in the important circumstances. After he hears the truth from the ghost, instead of taking revenge right away just as ghost tells him to do, he chooses to check out the truth by himself. He plan the play which tells the exactly same story about their family and shows it to his uncle and ask Horatio to watch his uncle’s expression in order to make sure that he is the murder. On another hand, Laertes’s actions seems more immature as he just takes whatever Claudius says without further reasoning and investigation. Claudius uses him to reach his goal of getting rid of Hamlet and he is being taking advantage by Claudius without noticing.
The analysis of the foils in the play Hamlet has been analyzed as before. And most interestingly, everybody has several different characteristics. Some are obvious some are hidden. As Hamlet’s tragedy goes along, the foils are more important as they make the tragedy a tragedy.