How Is Horatio A Foil In Hamlet

All throughout the world, it is common to see many people, such as politicians, businessmen, everyday ordinary people, who have a hidden agenda, an ulterior motive, driving them towards an ultimate goal. Characters such as Hamlet, Claudius, and Polonius share this attribute amongst themselves, ultimately leading to their collective demise. Horatio, however, serves as a hypothetical foil to this theme, as everything that he does is in complete loyalty towards Hamlet through the course of the play. Deception is a major theme of Hamlet and life as it is trying to show that those who are deceptive, such as Claudius, Hamlet, and Polonius, suffer a bad event, while those who are candid, such as Horatio, preserve and sometimes are rewarded.

Claudius' deception has more of a continuation rather than a beginning when the play begins, as his deception resulted in him killing his brother to gain the throne before Act 1 even begins. As a result of this he must continue on his deception

and scheming in order to maintain the web that he has built around himself, usually resulting in him enlisting Hamlet's childhood friends to spy on Hamlet and attempting to murder Hamlet. His character is easily definable throughout the entirety of the play as a pathological liar, meaning he does it so often and so naturally that he actually believes what he says. This is shown by both his first few line in the play "Think of us as of a father " (, quietly gloating to be audience and Hamlet that he killed his father and that he intends to keep a close eye on him, and his last lines of the play "She swoons to see them bleed"(5.2.339) as if he does not understand why Hamlet is attacking him, as he is lying in both times. What is different about Claudius is that unlike the rest of the character's he senses the damage that his scheming and deception has caused and realizes that he may one day be killed as a result of this, as he says, "O, 'tis too true! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.The harlot's cheek beautied with plast'ring art Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it Than is my deed to my most painted word (3.1.56-61)." He is talking about the speech regarding his sorrow for Hamlet's father murder, as he is the one that killed him. Ultimately, he is correct in that he is killed as a result of this kind of lies and deception as Hamlet extracts his revenge for the murder of his father.
Polonius is a different strain of deception than Hamlet and Claudius, as he is motivated by neither revenge or maintaining his power, but he instead wants to increase his social status and influence by moving from the upper middle class to the royalty order by having his daughter Ophelia marry Hamlet.

Polonius is similar to the Rosencrantz and Guildenstein except that instead of merely trying to procure information from Hamlet and deliver it Claudius, Polonius takes the information that he gleams and tries to spin it in a way that will benefit him. An example of this is how he perceives Hamlet's madness, not as grief for his father or an act, but instead as symptoms of being love-sick with Ophelia, Polonius' daughter. He even goes to extreme and dramatic lengths to prove this saying that he would have the King, "Take this from this if it be otherwise." (2.2.168). Eventually, Polonius is slain as a result of this greed driven deception, continuing the theme that deception brings

punishment.
Horatio is different from the rest of the characters in that he has no ulterior motive that is driving his actions, Although it can be argued that Horatio was indeed deceptive towards everyone but Hamlet, it is friendship and loyalty towards Hamlet, not personal gain, that motivates him to help his friend extract revenge. Everything that Horatio does is to help his friend or he does for Hamlet, such as observing Claudius during the murder scene of Hamlet's play and agreeing to live on to tell Hamlet's story instead of commit suicide. Horatio accurately describes himself saying, "I am more a antiquate Roman than a Dane." (5.2.374). This means that he would follow the Roman tradition of killing himself with honor instead of out living his friend. Horatio is not punished with death for his deception because he is not motivated by anything other than companionship, making him the character that goes against the theme of deception causing a punishment.
Some ultimate goals must be stored away and a cover must be put on in order to mask the ulterior motives that drive a person to achieve such an immoral goal. If goal is something that could be considered petty, such as revenge or personal gain, then it will follow the theme of deception causing punishment. However, if it is based as something more pure, such as friendship, you will not be punished severely.