Foils Of Fortinbras In Hamlet

William Shakespeare uses several characters in his play, Hamlet, to create a more in-depth look at their characteristics. Shakespeare uses characters called “foils” to offset the attributes of other characters. Foils are characters that contrast with another character to further highlight qualities of the other character. Throughout the play, Hamlet’s characteristics are emphasized with the help of his foils. Hamlet and Fortinbras share several qualities, but differ in their ambitions which make them foils to each other and highlights their differing characteristics. Hamlet takes the time to figure out how he wants to go about avenging his father. He decides that in order to figure out if the Ghost is being truthful he will act mad, and says,

Hamlet fakes going mad to decide if the Ghost is telling the truth about his father’s murder instead of taking action against Claudius because Hamlet needed time to plan his course of action against the king of Denmark. Fortinbras does not feel the same about waiting to make a plan. He wages war against Denmark to try and take back the lands his father lost while Denmark is grieving. Claudius says, “Now that follows that you know young Fortinbras, holding a weak supposal of our worth, or thinking by our late dear brother’s death...He hath not failed to pester us with message importing the surrender of those lands lost by his father” (1.2.17-24.). Fortinbras is ambitious and does not shy away from taking action instead of sitting back and procrastinating like Hamlet. Fortinbras and Hamlet share many qualities, but their ambitions, and how they achieve them, are what offset these characters from one another. Hamlet makes a point of saying, “O, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth” (4.4.65-66). Hamlet observes Fortinbras’s attempts for revenge when he says, “Witness this army of such mass and charge, led by a delicate and tender prince, whose spirit, with divine ambition puffed, makes