Foils in Hamlet Many have heard of the archetypal good cop and bad cop. The bad cop roughs up the criminal, trying to scare them into a confession; the bad cop’s overwhelming negative qualities highlight the good cop’s positive ones. This makes the good cop look like a friend to the man or women being interrogated, and the good cop easily gets the confession. An antithesis to the brute force and angered intimidation used by the bad cop, the good cop functions as a foil. Foils, characters that illuminate an extreme contrast with another character by highlighting the chasm between one another’s purpose, appear throughout literature. They are especially used in Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet, written in the early 17th century. Hamlet, whose loses his father because of a murder, must avenge his father’s killing by slaying his step-father. Hamlet’s attributes surface through his peers’ deeds; although most people believe the characters in …show more content…
Laertes also experience tragic loss: his father Polonius died at the hands of Hamlet. Contrasting with Hamlet’s indecisive delay, Laertes hears of his fathers death while overseas, and without hesitation, he returns to Denmark to seek his father’s murderer. An effective foil, Laertes embodies the rapid action apparent nowhere in Hamlet’s decision making. Hamlet bears the burdensome knowledge that Claudius slew his father for a lengthy period, yet procrastinates and wastes time. As Richard Levin says, “Hamlet is grieving for months… Laertes does not mourn at all” (Levin 222). Laertes even goes to another level when he says he would “cut [Hamlet’s] throat it’h’ church” (Shakespeare 4.7. 3271). This displays an absolute opposite to what Hamlet says earlier in the play when he dismisses the chance to kill Claudius because Claudius was kneeling in prayer. Laertes revenge, like Hamlet’s, ultimately leads to his