Hamlet Character Analysis

Consider Horatio’s account of the battle between old Hamlet and old Fortinbras and the descriptions of the late king

In the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the character of Fortinbras, has been used as a foil for the main character, Hamlet. Hamlet and Fortinbras have lost their fathers to untimely deaths. Claudius killed Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, and King Hamlet killed Fortinbras' father. Both Hamlet and Fortinbras have vowed to seek revenge for the deaths of their fathers. Since the revenge tactics of Hamlet and Fortinbras are completely different, Hamlet perceives the actions of Fortinbras as better than his own and the actions of Fortinbras, then, encourage Hamlet to act without hesitating.

Throughout Hamlet, not only does the audience gather information about Hamlet’s hamartia through Laertes, they also gather information from the character of Fortinbras and how he acts. The main reason that Fortinbras is such a strong foil for Hamlet’s character is also due to the similarities in both his and Hamlet’s lives. Fortinbras and Hamlet are both princes whose father’s were killed and are now seeking vengeance to achieve justice for their father’s deaths. Due to the deaths of their fathers, they also both now have their uncle’s sitting on the thrones of Denmark and Norway.

Firstly, Fortinbras is very open and bold about avenging his father’s death and killing the new king of Denmark. Everyone knows about his plan to attack Denmark even Horatio, a friend of Hamlet who attends

Oftentimes, the minor characters in a play can be vital and, among other things, function to further the action of the play or to reveal and illuminate the personalities of other characters. In Hamlet, Fortinbras, the Norwegian Prince, serves as the most important foil of Hamlet and provides us with the actions and emotions in which we can compare to those of Hamlet and better reveal Hamlet’s own character. Because Hamlet and Fortinbras both lost their fathers and have sworn to avenge their deaths, Fortinbras is a perfect parallel of Hamlet. He was also very crucial to the play’s ending and to bring a remedy to the corruption that has plagued Denmark.

1. In scene four, Hamlet has arrived at the dock where he will be shipped away to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. While waiting to board the ship they overhear young Fortinbras asking for a right of passage from the King of Denmark, so he can go to Poland, where the Norwegians and the Poles are fighting over a small sliver of land that is barely worth anything. Hamlet asked about this counter and the Captain told him that he would not even pay five ducats for that piece of land to farm and Hamlet was fascinated by the Poles and Norwegians will to go to war over a piece of land that was not worth much. Fortinbras is a foil to Hamlet at this point because he puts his thoughts into action and Hamlet does not, but this inspires him to begin acting on his thoughts.

     Horatio’s most important role as a foil does not become evident until the end of the play. His conversation with Hamlet just before the fatal duel with Laertes provides us with an insight into Hamlet’s state of mind. Horatio advises Hamlet to back down if he does not like the circumstances, and Horatio will attest to Hamlet’s

During the first part of Hamlet, the readers learn that Hamlet killed Fortinbras father, and that Hamlet took over the land. Fortinbras wants revenge on Hamlet for killing his father, but Fortinbras does not react and act insane unlike how Hamlet acted. Instead he began building up an army to attack Denmark, because Fortinbras thought it was something he owed his father, which would be to obtain the land back from Hamlet. Fortinbras uncle stopped him from taking the land back, but at least Laertes showed some action, unlike Hamlets inaction. Fortinbras actions made Hamlet look ignorant and seem immature, which exposed some of the many flaws that hamlet has, which in return made Fortinbras seem better.

(1.1.45)), while simultaneously predicating the impending arrival of young Fortenbras. In Zeffirelli's version these are neither established in the opening scene, nor at all. Horatio becomes more of a background character, rather than the well established, strong character found in Shakespeare. The existence of Fortenbras, as well as the entire sub-plot concerning Norway has been similarly omitted. It seems to be Zeffirelli's intent to remove as much diversion as he can from the actual quest of Hamlet, and what he sees as Hamlet's end. Zeffirelli lessens the character of Horatio to force this Hamlet into the stance of a loner as opposed to Shakespeare's Hamlet, who has a strong (if not ever-present) sidekick. Likewise, Zeffirelli removes the Norwegian element so that this subplot cannot interfere with the plight of Hamlet, or with Zeffirelli's version of his ultimate end.

Of Horatio we know best that what distinguishes him from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and indeed from Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes, and Gertrude, is that Claudius cannot use him. Critics have remarked upon Horatio’s ambiguously shifting status at the court of Denmark, and the late William Empson confessed a certain irritation at Hamlet’s discovery of virtues in Horatio that the prince could not find in himself. Yet Shakespeare gives us a Hamlet we must love while knowing our inferiority, since he has the qualities we lack, and so he also gives us Horatio, our representative, who loves so stoically for the rest of us. Horatio is loyal, and limited; skeptical as befits a fellow student of the profoundly skeptical Hamlet, yet never skeptical about Hamlet. Take Horatio out of the play, and you take us out of the play. The plot could be rearranged to spare the wretched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, even to spare Laertes, let alone Fortinbras, but remove Horatio, and Hamlet becomes so estranged from us that we scarcely can hope to account for that universality of appeal which is his, and the play’s, most original characteristic. (5)

All of these main characters cared very little for Hamlet except for Horatio. Horatio was the kind of friend to Hamlet that all people wish their friends could be. He was loyal, honest, and loving. Horatio was honest with Hamlet when he told him about seeing his father’s ghost. “My lord, I think I saw him yesternight”(I.2.189). Hamlet did not question Horatio because he trusted him with all of his heart. Seeing a ghost every day is not a common thing, but Hamlet never doubted him. Throughout the play Horatio is looking out for Hamlet. When he was about to fight Laertes Horatio told Hamlet, “if your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will

As the reader starts to analyze the two characters, it is noticeable that Fortinbras is more likely to think of his actions and keep track of his emotions better than Hamlet. At the beginning of the play, both princes' had lost their fathers and were sick at heart, but only Fortinbras decided to do something about it. The reader learns that Denmark has been preparing for a war from one of the guards in the castle, and that "young Fortinbra / Of unimprovèd mettle hot and full, / Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there / Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes, / For food and diet, to some enterprise / That hath a stomach in ’t, which is no other / As it doth well appear unto our state / But to recover of us, by strong hand / And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands / So by his father lost" (I, i, 94-103). Fortinbras actions show how he will not let his emotions get in the way of him getting back what belongs to his country, and that is what a leader of a country

He has some rights of memory, that is, some politicians claim, probably derived from a time when someone in the Norwegian royal family married someone in the Danish royal family. More importantly, he has the vantage, which is simply to say that both the King and Prince of Denmark are dead, and he, Fortinbras, is on the scene with an army. So Fortinbras says, "with sorrow I embrace my fortune" (5.2.388), which is reminiscent of Claudius' words about his brother's death. Horatio reassures Fortinbras that the speech he will give will both strengthen Fortinbras' claim to the throne, and put a stop to wild rumors. Then Fortinbras has the final words in the play. He orders that the bodies be taken to the stage where Horatio will make his speech. And, to do honor to Hamlet, "soldiers' music" is to be played, and the cannon is to be shot off. The last words we hear are, "Go, bid the soldiers shoot" (5.2.403), and the last sounds we hear are the booming cannon shots that so irritated Hamlet when King Claudius used them as

Shakespeare accurately shows the political and social statuses of the day in Hamlet, and accurately demonstrates the ideas of Karl Marx through Hamlet. Marxist ideas demonstrate that society that is dependent on a class system will lead to a struggle between the classes and inevitably lead to revolution. In Hamlet, Shakespeare accurately shows the inner struggles of a class system through the wide variety of characters. The main characters span from the high class and royal family all the way down to the lowest class and the gravediggers. Through the interactions between the characters, it is easy to see the oppressions given to the lower class by the upper class. The result of this, as seen in the final scene of the play, does not end well for the upper class. In this scene, all the royal family, as well as Ophelia’s family, end up dead. The fact that the only one to survive is Horatio also perhaps shows some insight to the class struggle to the end. Horatio is the only one of the main characters to not be of the same social status, yet is the one who lives to tell the story to Fortinbras. He also is shown to be the one that remains honest and true throughout the

The other member of the family that we see in play, Gertrude, does not have a good case either, she is so unconcerned with her husband's murder and knowingfully marries his murderer that we can infer that she collaborated with Claudius and was committing adultery before then. Gertrude’s actions are almost as grotesque as Claudius’ and such a backstabbing person should never be given the power to rule over a kingdom where hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake. The family of Hamlet is so hellbent on revenge, greed and power instead of the people of the kingdom and is why I believe they are so unfit for rule. I believe that the lands of Denmark are in much better hands under the rule of Fortinbras, based off of his desire to lead, ability to act and honor. His character is the foil to Hamlet and he shows that he is a better candidate to lead the kingdom most notably when we see how Hamlet and Fortinbras reacted to their fathers’ deaths. Hamlet acts like a mad man when his father is dead due to his constant planning for revenge but without action. On the other hand, Fortinbras turns his anger from his father’s death into motivation to become the King of Denmark, he is also described to be a man of action and he displays calmness, virtuousness and honor which