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Foils Of Fortinbras In Hamlet

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“Quadruplets” in the Play Hamlet A foil is a character that presents a contrast to another character, especially the main character, in order to highlight the characteristics of the main character. It’s just like twins; even though they are alike, but they are still different in some aspects. In the famous play Hamlet, Shakespeare uses large amounts of foils to deepen the characterization of the protagonist called Hamlet such as Fortinbras, Laertes, and Horatio. First, it is very obvious that Fortinbras is a foil to Hamlet since they have similar experiences: both of them are the prince of the country; their fathers who have the same name as they do dies; their uncle who becomes the new king of the country doesn’t know what they are …show more content…

The major difference between Laertes and Hamlet is the time they spend on revenge. Hamlet doesn’t take every advantage of the large amount of opportunities to kill his uncle- he doesn’t kill Claudius when Claudius is praying in the room alone, for example; he keeps the right time to exact his vengeance. Also, he is suspicious whether the ghost is telling him the truth so that he prepares a play that is similar to the way Claudius kills his father to see Claudius’ reaction. After checking the ghost doesn’t lie, he is ready for revenge. On the other hand, Laertes just goes to Denmark as soon as he hears about the death of his father. Meanwhile, he receives support from many citizens while Hamlet just has about one or two loyal people who try to help him. The actions of Laertes reveal that he is calm because he doesn’t kill Claudius right away even though he hears many rumors before on the way to Denmark. Another similar point between these two people is that they both love Ophelia, but in different ways. Laertes loves Ophelia as a brother, so he gives many suggestions to Ophelia when he knows that Hamlet shows affection toward Ophelia; he keeps telling her that Hamlet is a young prince that his affection is not permanently, which alludes that he is really concerned about the future if Ophelia agrees to be with Hamlet. Hamlet loves Ophelia as a man since he writes a long letter showing his feelings toward Ophelia. In addition, he suffers a lot after he is rejected by Ophelia that “He was pale as his undershirt, and his knees were knocking together.” (Act 2, Scene

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A foil is either a character who is opposite to the main character or nearly the same as the main character. The purpose of the foil character is to emphasize the traits of the main character by contrast only. The author adds these characters in his novel so that the reader can better understand the main characters and the story. The character foils being presented are about Amir and Hassan, their foils are shown when they are both still children and their differences clearly reflect one another.

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2.2.73-75). Unlike Hamlet, Fortinbras heeds his uncle’s advice and stops his assault on Denmark. While Hamlet falls deeper into madness and obsession with revenge, Fortinbras controls his obsession with reclaiming the land his father yielded to Denmark. Through the distinct archetypal parallels between Hamlet and Fortinbras, Shakespeare compares the two characters in their revengeful dispositions and composes an alternative conclusion of Hamlet’s tragedy through Prince Fortinbras: one where Hamlet listens to his uncle and arrests his corrupted motivations. In diverging from the original story followed by Prince Hamlet through Fortinbras, Shakespeare indicates Hamlet’s corruptible nature and hierarchy for revenge led to his death and instructs the audience against depravity and disregard for

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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.

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murder, he accidently stabs Polonius in the chest. Ophelia thought that Hamlet didn’t love her, so she jumped off of a bridge. The quote implies here, because it shows Hamlet lost everything, and everyone he loved in the process. Laertes had a brother like relationship with Hamlet. He loved Polonius, and Ophelia a little too much.

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He blames everything on Claudius because he is the one that killed Hamlet’s father and now his mother. This give Hamlet peace about all of the events that have lead to this moment. We should learn from this that revenge in haste can be chaotic and unsuccessful. Revenge may not always be the answer, but if that is what you choose, then it needs to be well thought out and tested for flaws. I think that Laertes got the revenge that he wanted and even though it resulted in his own death as well, he got some closure that he needed.

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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.

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Hamlet and Fortinbras have similarities such as they both have lost their fathers, both have their uncles on the thrown of their country, and they both seek revenge because of the mourning of their fathers. Hamlet and Fortinbras are different because Hamlet overthinks things whereas Fortinbras takes action first and thinks about it later, Hamlet is also unwilling to act if he is unsure of it and Fortinbras will put people at risk to get revenge. What readers and audience members come to understand as a result of the similarities and differences that exist between Hamlet and Fortinbras is that they are basically opposites of each other. Hamlet overthinks things a lot and you never really know what his actions are going to be,

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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.

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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.

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First, Hamlet is very intelligent and knows when someone is using him, but Laertes is not very intelligent and is easily tricked. Laertes is very gullible. Second, Hamlet is indecisive although, Laertes will not hesitate to do what he wants to do in order to get his revenge. Clearly, Hamlet and Laertes have similarities and differences. It is important that we recognize the the differences and similarities of these characters that I described.

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