Hamlet And Fortinbras Foil Characters In Hamlet

Over the years, it has been proven that Shakespeare’s characters follow a particular style in his tragedies. This can be seen in the five act play Hamlet. Shakespeare’s tragedy characters include: the tragic hero, foil character(s), the angel, the she-devil, supernatural characters, normative characters, and fool characters. Hamlet is a perfect representation of Shakespeare’s character types, because each main character fits into Shakespeare’s character type.

Hamlet is the tragic hero of the play. Hamlet’s downfall starts when his fatal flaw becomes present. Hamlet is not the person who will take action and finish a task he was given. Hamlet’s father, the ghost, asks him to avenge him and kill Claudius for murdering him (1.5.9-39). Hamlet

Both of these characters contrast Hamlet. Fortinbras is a prince just like Hamlet who wishes to seek revenge for his father’s death, but they both go at it in different ways. Fortinbras is works out of honor while Hamlet is acting out of pure revenge. Hamlet does not have the ability to act on the wishes of his father, but Fortinbras has marched his army through the lands and killed people in honor of his nation. Hamlet has not been able to kill the people who are guilty of killing his father while Fortinbras has taken back the land he has lost. Fortinbras’ character exposes Hamlet’s fatal flaw. Laertes is seeking for revenge of his father, Polonius, being killed. He believes Claudius has killed his father and rushes into the palace ready to avenge his father (4.5.129-132). He is rash just as Hamlet is, but unlike Hamlet, Laertes is shallow and makes Hamlet smarting in

Horatio is one of Hamlet’s friends from the university. Horatio plays a minor role until the end of the play when he has to tell what has happened to the other characters and tell the story of Hamlet. He survives the tragedy that happened. Now his sole purpose is to explain what has transpired in the room and tell Hamlet’s story. He has to try and return things to a sense of normality.

The clowns, or gravediggers, are the fool character in the play. They provide the audience with a well needed comedic relief. They joke that she does did not commit suicide, but she died out of self-defense (5.1.1-9). They give the audience the laugh they have needed since the play started. This type of relief is needed for a tragic play as this one.

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragedy in which nearly all the main characters parrish, yet readers can still see his character types in the plays. Hamlet shows Shakespeare’s character types perfectly. Each character has unique characteristics, but fall under one of Shakespeare’s character types. Shakespeare is a true genius with his character type