Laertes and Fortinbras as Foils for HamletHamlet, the major character in Shakespeare's play of the same name, was faced with a decision after learning that Claudius had murdered his father. Should he believe the ghost and avenge his father's murder? Or is the ghost evil and trying to coerce him into killing Claudius? Throughout the play we see Hamlet's struggle with this problem. Many opportunities present themselves for him to kill Claudius, but he is unable to act because he cannot convince himself to believe the Ghost. Shakespeare uses Laertes and Fortinbras as foils for Hamlet, to help us understand why Hamlet acts the way he does. Foils are used in plays so that readers are better able to understand the main character (Hamlet). In a foil, the minor character is similar in many ways to the main character, which is why we will compare the two. However, it is through these similarities that we can see the most important differences between the two. Hamlet's major foil is Laertes, the son of Polonius. The most obvious similarity is that they are both young men. They also come from relatively similar backgrounds, an aristocratic Danish upbringing. They also both had a college education. This brings us to another similarity; [Semicolons versus colons], they both have the ability to use logical and rational reasoning. However, they differ on their applications of logical reasoning. We see this logical and rational reasoning in Hamlet, in Acts 1 and 2 when he sets the "mouse trap" for Claudius, to determine if he is guilty of murdering his father. . Hamlet's ability to think several steps forward and predict what the king's reaction will be if he is guilty, shows a type of reasoning beyond a norm...... middle of paper .... ..f the papers in this set, you will see that the similarities between Fortinbras and Hamlet are not so obvious: few writers have taken them up, and none have done as good a job of clarifying them as this writer. Here again, this author supports this assertion with numerous specific examples. Some weak writers, who are also weak thinkers, will use words like "obvious" when they have no evidence and may actually be wrong. In such cases, the use of the word "obvious" is an attempt to intimidate the reader by implying that if they do not see what is supposed to be "obvious" then they are stupid. Be careful when using such words and be wary when you find them in your reading. (Another favorite is the phrase “of course.”) Works Cited: Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet. California. 1600-1601. Ed. Edward Hubler. A classic signet ring. New York: Penguin Publishers,1963.