Fortinbras And Hamlet Foil Essay

For thousands of years, writers have used elaborate literary devices to develop the complexity of their stories. Many forms of literature use character foils to enhance and highlight the qualities, or lack thereof, in the protagonist. This is done by comparing and contrasting people in similar situations, and the different paths they choose to take. The play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare uses character foils between the characters Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras as avengers to develop and enrich the context of the play and Hamlet’s actions. This is demonstrated by their personality traits, their family relations and their actions as they seek for revenge of their fathers’ deaths.

To begin, the personality traits given to each one of these men contribute to creating a

Each one of these young men search for revenge for their father’s death in this play. When both Fortinbras and Hamlet’s uncles take over the throne, the situations are much different. Hamlet is suspicious of his uncle, and must be convinced by the ghost of his father to take action in killing him. Fortinbras is on good terms with his uncle, and chooses to take revenge on his father’s death by “importing the surrender of those lands lost [to Denmark] by his father”. His form of revenge is a levelheaded, blatant response, which proves to be much more of a success than Hamlet’s covert attempts to prove his uncle guilty and murder him for revenge. On the other hand, Laertes returns to Denmark from studying in England to immediately kill the man who murdered his father, even if it proves to be a friend. “To hell, allegiance!” Laertes vows to only “be revenged most thoroughly for [his] father.” Though his actions are proven to be much bolder than Hamlet’s, the two of them still end up dead, with Fortinbras left to deal with the fate of