Character Foils

Character Foils

1. Ophelia and Hamlet

   • Both loss father
     • Ophelia truely goes mad
       • • “I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died”
       • Ophelia, like Hamlet, may of faked going mad so that she could have a Christian burial (doubtful death) and critisize the court (change how people see her maddness)
         • Hamlet becomes mad so that he isn't really to blame for the murder of the king
     • Hamlet is becomes very sad but his madness is debateable
       • “To put an antic disposition on”
       • “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t”
   • Both Suicidal
     • Hamlet contemplates suicide but does not commit suicide due to the fear of the unknown
       • “Oh, God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem t me all the uses of this world”
       • "The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have" (3:1:80)
     • Ophelia commits suicide without much fear of the afterlife
       • “Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes; as one incapable of her own distress, or like a creature native and indued”
       • "Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like" (4.7.170)
   • Madness
     • Ophelia is watched in the castle due to her madness; Hamlet is sent away
   • Revenge
     • Ophelia wants revenge for her father's death, Hamlet wants revenge for his father's death. In getting revenge, they both destroy themselves
       • Hamlet gets revenge by killing Claudius
       • Ophelia gets revenge by suicide causing guilt upon many in the kingdom

2. Laertes and Hamlet

   • Loss of father/revenge
     • Hamlet needs the truth before he can act on his father's murder
       • "Put an antic disposition on" (1.5.170)
     • Laertes just assumes it was Claudius and brings an angry mob to kill Claudius
       • "Let come what comes, only I'll be revenged most thoroughly for my father" (4.5.110)
   • Inconsistant loyalties
     • Laertes continually loves Ophelia and is always loyal to his father, Polonius
       • "Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister" (1.3.60)
       • "When these are gone, the woman will be out" (4.7.185)
     • Hamlet does not consistantly love Ophelia; he says he loves her but then goes back on his word
       • "I did love you once" "I loved you not" (3.1.123)
       • "I loved Ophelia forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantitiy of love make up my sum" (5.1.261)
   • Hamlet's inability to act; Laertes' act
     • When Claudius is praying Hamlet doesn't want to act

3. Fortinbras and Hamlet

   • Ability/inability to act
     • Fortinbras is willing to fight over a piece of land for honour
       • “a little patch of land / That hath in it no profit but the name” (4.4.98)
       • Has been planning revenge on Hamlet for many years
     • Hamlet is unable to act
       • "O, what a rogue" soliloquy (talks about the actors and how they get so worked up over fiction)
       • Hamlet is unable to kill Claudius in prayer
         • "He has to put on a play to make sure of his guilty"
           • "Wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge" (1.5.29)
       • Hamlet's contemplation about suicide
         • "Or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon' gainst self-slaughter" (1.2.131)
         • "To be or not to be" soliloquy (3.1.56)
       • Grief prevents him from acting
       • Doubt
         • He begins to question if the ghost was real and is telling the truth
   • Honour