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Peter Welch
Mr. Wood
English IV Honors
10 January 2015/ 20 January 2015
Foils to Hamlet
William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark focuses almost solely
on its complex eponymous figure. Hamlet has many unique character traits. He is shrewd,
paranoid, contemplative, and constantly idle. These traits are emphasized and enhanced by the
presence of many characters in the play who act as foils to him. In the play, Laertes, Fortinbras,
and Claudius all exhibit traits that oppose those of Hamlet, making Hamlet's traits shine.
Laertes is perhaps the most obvious foil to Hamlet. The two characters fight to avenge of
their respective fathers. They go about this task in very different ways. Hamlet responds to the
death of his father and the subsequent crowning of his uncle with no direct action. He hangs
around Denmark, brooding and wasting time. Hamlet only takes action when he is met by a
vision of his deceased father. In this vision, it is revealed to Hamlet that his uncle, King
Claudius, is the one responsible for the death of Hamlet's father. Hamlet is instructed to kill
Claudius. Unsurprisingly, Hamlet spends a period of time doubting the vision and not taking
action. Even after Hamlet fully convinces himself that his father told the truth in the vision, he
continues to delay, not killing Claudius when first given the chance. Hamlet does not kill
Claudius until the final scene of the play, at which point many main characters have been
poisoned, including Hamlet himself. Laertes acts in the exact opposite way. Laertes is in
France when he hears that his father, Polonius, has been killed. As soon as he gets the news,
Polonius rushes to Denmark with intent to murder Hamlet, his father's killer. Laertes does not
spend any period of time ruminating about the task he has been given. Within a few short days,

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Laertes has created and executed a plan to murder Hamlet using a poison sword.
Shakespeare uses Laertes to show the audience what the average prince would do in
response to his father's death. Laertes's immediate eagerness to seek revenge is in total contrast
to Hamlet's slow ways. Laertes's opinion on the killing of his father can be summed up; when he
learns about his father's death, Laertes immediately proclaims:
How came he dead? Ill not be juggled with.
To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation. To this point I stand
That both the worlds I give to negligence.
Let come what comes, only Ill be revenged
Most thoroughly for my father. (Shakespeare. Act IV, Scene v)
Before he even knows how his father was killed, Laertes is already intent on finding a murderer.
Laertes is proactive in a way that Hamlet is not. Laertes does not need to be instructed by his
father's ghost to do something, he just does it. In the time period starting when Hamlet is
assigned to kill Claudius and ending when the killing is actually done, Hamlet has: created a play
about murder, contemplated suicide at length, held a sword right next to a preoccupied Claudius,
but chose not to kill him, left for England to be hanged, only to be brought back to Denmark by
pirates, and much more. When using Laertes as a model of logical action, the actions of Hamlet
seem bizarre and ridiculous. In short, Laertes' allegiance to Polonius drives him to passionate
action, while Hamlet's allegiance to King Hamlet drives him to passionate inaction.
Fortinbras is similar to Hamlet very much in the same way Laertes is similar to Hamlet.
Like Hamlet, Fortinbras is a prince with a noble, and dead, father. Unlike Hamlet, Fortinbras
takes the throne of his country and leads them forward. As king, Fortinbras seeks to avenge his
father, who died in a war with Denmark. This military excursion is ultimately successful, as
Fortinbras is able to waltz in to Denmark and find no royal family left to hold the throne. So,
Fortinbras takes it for himself. Throughout the play, Hamlet is aware of Fortinbras and their

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similarities. In Act IV, Hamlet sees Fortinbras's army marching toward Denmark. He comments:
A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward, I do not know
Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means To do't.
Examples gross as earth exhort me:
Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honors at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father killed, a mother stained,
Excitements of my reason and my blood, (Shakespeare. Act IV, Scene iv)
In this passage, it seems as though Hamlet admires Fortinbras for his courage and nobility, and
feels inferior in comparison. It almost seems like Hamlet is resentful of his contemplative
nature, as evidenced in the quote Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;' / Sith I have cause
and will and strength and means To do't. (Shakespeare. 4. 4). The juxtaposition between
Hamlet and Fortinbras is very clear and important, even Hamlet himself comments on it at
length.
Hamlet and Claudius are foils, but their parallels differ drastically from the parallels of
Hamlet and Fortinbras/ Laertes. If you buy into the theory that Hamlet has an Oedipus complex,
then it is very easy to understand the ways in which Hamlet and Claudius are similar. Under this
theory, both characters are romantically in love with Gertrude and have animosity toward King
Hamlet. Some evidence of the possibility that Hamlet has an Oedipus complex comes in Act I,
when Hamlet speaks with Claudius and Gertrude. He criticizes his mother's romantic decisions,
saying Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, / As if increase of appetite had grown /
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--/ Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!

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(Shakespeare. 1. 2). In this section, Hamlet recalls how his mother used to hang on his father,
implying that he did not like seeing them touching each other in a romantic way. Then he
comments on Gerturude's increased appetite for sex once she married Claudius. This
observation is far too astute for a normal person to make. Hamlet is clearly invested in
Gertrude's romantic life to the point at which the reader must wonder if Hamlet is romantically
interested in Gertrude. Further, while Hamlet never speaks negatively of his father, one must
realize that, before his death, King Hamlet was the only thing keeping his son from ruling
Denmark. Even if Hamlet respects his father as a noble man, Hamlet must resent his father to
some extent, as Hamlet clearly is interested in becoming the king of Denmark. Toward the end
of the play, Hamlet sees another way in which he is similar to Claudius: they are both, to an
extent, corrupt. As the play goes on, Hamlet sees the actions of everyone, including himself, to
be corrupt. In this, Hamlet sees his similarities to Claudius.
Hamlet and Claudius also have major differences in character. Hamlet is paranoid and
terrified of corruption, while Claudius is a truly corrupt man, who is a murderer and a master of
deception. Claudius can present himself well as a politican, while Hamlet is exceptionally poor
at getting others to like him. These differences in character are the reason for the friction
between Hamlet and Claudius in the play. The two contrast each other well, and therefore work
as foils.
Hamlet is an incredibly complex character. Throughout the play, Hamlet's actions are
often illogical and erratic. Shakespeare uses multiple foils to emphasize Hamlet's poor decision
making and odd character traits. The viewer learns a lot about Hamlet from the actions of his
counterparts. Laertes, Fortinbras, and Claudius are the most major foils to Hamlet. These foils
play a major part in making Hamlet such an interesting character.