Laertes Foil To Hamlet

Character foils are important to any story or play as they compare and contrast character traits as the story unfolds. The use of character foils allows the audience to understand a characters way of thought and the actions that they take. Character foils show the moral behaviour and can help the audience see contradictory factors that help advance the plot. Although characters may seem similar, the use of character foils can show their differences. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the use of character foils proves Fortinbras is a stronger political leader over Hamlet, the contrasting view of Laertes as a son in comparison to Hamlet and Horatio being thought of as the better man in contradiction to Hamlet.

On the other hand, Laertes wants to revenge his father’s death. Therefore this mistake murder leads Hamlet to his downfall as Claudius and Laertes want to kill him.

A foil is a minor character in a literary work that compliments the main character through similarities and differences in personality and plot. In William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", the main character, Hamlet, has three major foils. These foils are his close friend Horatio, Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, and the brother of his love, Laertes. These three characters contradict and enhance Hamlet's major characteristics.

Laertes and Hamlet are foil characters as we all know. They act nothing alike. What I am gonna tell you how they are the same and how they are different so you know they are foil characters. What characteristic do you think they have that explaines why they are foil characters.Hamlet was a character who you would have thought he was clever and played circles around everyone when they thought they had played a circle around Hamlet. He acted mad and crazy, “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed, His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world!” Act 1 Scene 2. The only reason he acted like that is because his whole life was falling apart, he was depressed, his dad died and his mom remarried within two months of the death of her husband. He was always right about people he tried to warn his mother about the new king, and how he killed the old Hamlet which was the old king. Hamlet just wants to be protective of his mother, he does not want her to get hurt any more than she already is. Laertes is Ophelia’s brother, he tries to protect her from things. Laertes is a guy who, if things does not go as planned or if he threatened then he wants to fight and settle it. The only thing wrong with that is if he always done that then he would be killed by now already. The king

Laertes loses his family because of Hamlet’s actions. His father is killed by him and his sister kills herself because of her grief. Laertes and King Claudius begin to plot Hamlet’s murder, planning to poison him, by drink or wound, whichever comes first. However, the plan backfires on the both of them and Laertes dies from his own blade, but not before saying “The King, the King’s to blame.”

Laertes plots for vengeance due to Hamlet killing his father and second-handedly killing his sister, Ophelia. Hamlet, who is still a self-absorbed narcissist, is beyond clueless to Laertes intentions for fighting. In the end, Hamlet is cut with the poisonous sword, Laertes is stabbed with the poisonous sword, Gertrude drinks from the poisonous cup, and King Claudius finally gets what he deserves after Hamlet, as he’s dying, stabs him and forces him to drink the poison. Hamlet, who suffered through a road of vengeance, finally kills Claudius at the last possible second. All of Hamlet’s family and friends die because of his inability to be a man of action and a man of thought at the times when they are opportune. His delay of killing Claudius led him to become invested in his own issues and become the domino effect for the death of others. His moral ambiguity is questioned even at the end of the play because he killed Claudius at the last possible second. In Shakespeare’s tragedies, like Hamlet, Hamlet desire for vengeance ultimately corrupts the morals and decisions he makes further affecting the people around him as he is so self-involved. Hamlet’s morals suffer because he never once looked within himself to understand where he went wrong. Hamlet’s moral ambiguity creates this significance to the play by emphasizing the fact that

    In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the characters of Laertes and Hamlet both display impulsive reactions when angered. Once Laertes discovers his father has been murdered, he immediately assumes the slayer is Claudius. As a result of Laertes' speculation, he instinctively moves to avenge Polonius' death. "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 worlds I give to negligence, let come what comes; only I'll be revenged most thoroughly for my father." Act 4 Scene 5 lines 128-134 provide insight into Laertes' mind, displaying his desire for revenge at any cost.

In Hamlet, the main character tries to get revenge on his father’s death by plotting the murder of Claudius, but it is his indecisiveness that leads to many problems. He is supported or opposed by characters who are considered foils to him. A foil is when a main character is compared to another character to better reveal the characteristics of the main character, as well as his intentions and motivations. There are many characters who can be considered foils to Hamlet. However, the characters that truly stand as foils to the protagonist are Laertes, Fortinbras, and Claudius. Hamlet and his foils are all put in a similar situation, but it is how they react and deal with their issues that makes them distinct from Hamlet.

Hamlet and Laertes share a different but deep love and concern for Ophelia. Before his leave to France, Laertes provides lengthy advice to Ophelia pertaining to her relationship with Hamlet. Laertes voices his concern of Hamlet's true intentions towards Ophelia and advices her to be some what wary of his love. Laertes tells Ophelia

A foil is a minor character that helps the audience better understand a major character. A foil may exist as a comparison character, with similarities between the two, as well as differences that bring to light an important contrast between the foil and the main character. A foil may also just be someone for the main character to talk to, so we can know and understand their thoughts and feelings. Foils help us understand the obvious as well as the arcane. In the classic tragedy Hamlet, we see William Shakespeare employ foils to illustrate both examples. They become important literary tools that help the reader rationalize the concurrent theme of the play -

In the climactic final scene of the play, the foils do fence, wherein both are fatally wounded. The fact that Hamlet and Laertes both live in separate countries from where they were born, and that both are renowned fencers, acts as a comparison to present the two as parallel foils, though it is a decidedly less significant one.

    William Shakespeare wrote the classic play, Hamlet in the sixteenth century.  Hamlet would be a very difficult play to understand without the masterful use of foils.  A foil is a minor character in a literary work that compliments the main character through similarities and differences in personality.  The audience can identify similarities and differences between any of the characters and Hamlet, however, there are two characters that share so much in common with Hamlet that they have to be considered the most important foils in the play.  These two characters are Laertes and Fortinbras.  It is the great similarities between Laertes, Fortinbras, and Hamlet that make the

Laertes serves a foil to Hamlet, although they are not similar in birth, they are similar in that they both have a dear father murdered. Using this parallel, Shakespeare uses Laertes to show what Hamlet should be doing, contrasting Laertes’s words of action to Hamlet’s own words of action. We see this most clearly when Laertes is talking with Claudius and he says that he will “cut [Hamlet’s] throat i' th' church” to avenge his father, this contrasts directly with Hamlet who decides not to kill a praying Claudius when he has the chance (4.7.144). Laertes also serves as external conflict as he challenges Hamlet to a fight and is convinced by Claudius to kill Hamlet with a poisoned sword. Without this fight, who knows if Hamlet would have gotten around to kill Claudius? But when we really look at Laertes’ words and consequent action, we see another similarity with Hamlet, both are rash and passionate. This is significant because

In William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras and Hamlet find themselves in similar situations.  While Hamlet waits for the right time to avenge his father's death, Laertes learns of his father's death and immediately wants vengeance, and Fortinbras awaits his chance to recapture land that used to belong to his father.  Laertes and Fortinbras go about accomplishing their desires quite differently than Hamlet.  While Hamlet acts slowly and carefully, Laertes and Fortinbras seek their revenge with haste. Although Laertes and Fortinbras are minor characters, Shakespeare molds them in order to contrast with Hamlet.  Fortinbras and, to a greater extent, Laertes act as foils to Hamlet with respect to their motives for

One of the most important subplots of the play Hamlet is the character of Laertes and how he demands revenge for the slaying of his father. Laertes is an antagonist character in the play Hamlet and works against the main character. However, Claudius is Hamlet's real enemy in the play so Laertes might be classified as a foil rather than a true antagonist. Laertes is an extremely important character to the plot, although his importance is only seen at the end of the play. Therefore, he should be classified as a major character. His actions ultimately begin the final climax of the play's plot. Laertes is the son of the priest Polonius and the older brother of Ophelia, late female companion of Prince Hamlet. At first, Laertes seems to only be a peripheral character but functions to further the plot in the latter half of the play upon his return to Denmark.