Foil Characters In Hamlet Research Paper

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What is the point of foil characters? It may seem useless as it is, but it can assist readers potentially perceive the flaws of various characters and their potentials. The story, Hamlet, shows multiple types of similarities and differences for each character. Each foil that Shakespeare shares in Hamlet slowly shows young Hamlet’s flaws throughout the story. Starting with the prominent one what shares likewise qualities with Hamlet is Young Fortinbras, Laertes, and then King Claudius.
Starting off with the main flaws of the protagonist, Hamlet, we notice that Fortinbras is the superior half of him. In the start of the story, the audience honestly rarely hears from Fortinbras and he does not portray an enormous role until around the end of the …show more content…

Starting with their similarities, they are both royals who hide who they truly are which could be rather misleading. For example, Hamlet pretends to be mad and even declares it to his mother. As for Claudius, he pretends to be a righteous king that has nothing to do with Hamlet’s father’s death but truly he assassinated him. Claudius exhibits no remorse for his actions and seizes whatever chance he can obtain to use someone to preserve his power. “Of those effects for which I did the murder: / My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. / May one be pardoned and retain th’offense?” (Shakespeare 3.3 line 55-56) Given the quote, readers can distinguish Claudius’s greed is what made him kill Old Hamlet and shows little pity whatsoever. Unlike Hamlet, he performs a bit of grief from time to time, but overall hides it for everyone to still think he’s actually going mad. Sadly for him, he cannot declare what he deems about his uncle because he is the King. In the story, Claudius slowly catches on that Hamlet is gaining upon him so he sets up series of plans to overcome him. Again, just like Fortinbras and Laertes, Hamlet has no plan while they

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