Considering the difference in actions and thoughts between Fortinbras and Hamlet, Shakespeare is able to affirm to his intentions of creating a foil character to highlight the downfalls of Hamlet. Shakespeare allows the audience to question Hamlet’s actions and motives by using different foil characters to compare his actions to. Claudius, Laertes and Fortinbras are all foil characters for Hamlet, however it is Fortinbras that Hamlet is able to best connect to and therefore the best for the audience to draw comparisons to. By highlighting the comparisons and contrasts of both characters, I shall show that through creating Fortinbras Shakespeare was about to elaborate upon Hamlet’s shortcomings as a hero.
Both Hamlet and Fortinbras lead very …show more content…
In a soliloquy in Act IV Scene iv, Hamlet is going on and on about how he’s still alive and able to say that he still has to carry out the promise he made to the ghost, but “Sith I have cause and will and strength and means/ To do ’t. “(4.4.46) He states that he has the strength here, but within his first soliloquy he says his uncle is just his father’s brother “but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules" (1.2.6) which makes it appear that Hamlet does not consider himself strong. It is not until this point in Act IV, that Hamlet ever refers to himself as strong in any manner. “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” (2.2.22) , states Hamlet at the beginning of his second soliloquy in Act II, scene ii, he says a similar exclamation in Act III, in the famous “To be or not to be: that is the question” (3.1.56) soliloquy, where Hamlet have not even the strength to decide if he can bear life anymore than he already is. Perhaps Shakespeare does this to show the development of Hamlet throughout the play. He’s a weak boy that has just lost his father, but as the play progresses Hamlet grows into a young noble prince. Which is seen in Act V, “Here, thou insectous, merderous, damned Dane/ Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother” Hamlet takes action once and for all and kills off Claudius. It can be brought into question whether or not Hamlet only decided to do this once he …show more content…
Even as he’s dying, “But I do prophesy the election lights / On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.” Hamlet still admires what Fortinbras has done and him as a person, and it is Shakespeare 's intent to allow the audience to infer that Hamlet is trying to give Fortinbras what he could never achieve himself and what Fortinbras wanted, which was a throne, more specifically the throne of Denmark. Fortinbras never fully stated in the play how he felt about Hamlet, the audience is to assume that he was indifferent to Hamlet despite the friction between their fathers. In the final scene, after horatio has explained to Fortinbras and his army what has just happened “Let four captains / Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, / For he was likely, had he been put on, / To have proved most royally” is Fortinbras’ only words on his thoughts on Hamlet and it’s Shakespeare’s intent to show the readers that he only had respect for him as a leader and as
Both Hamlet and Fortinbras lead very …show more content…
In a soliloquy in Act IV Scene iv, Hamlet is going on and on about how he’s still alive and able to say that he still has to carry out the promise he made to the ghost, but “Sith I have cause and will and strength and means/ To do ’t. “(4.4.46) He states that he has the strength here, but within his first soliloquy he says his uncle is just his father’s brother “but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules" (1.2.6) which makes it appear that Hamlet does not consider himself strong. It is not until this point in Act IV, that Hamlet ever refers to himself as strong in any manner. “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” (2.2.22) , states Hamlet at the beginning of his second soliloquy in Act II, scene ii, he says a similar exclamation in Act III, in the famous “To be or not to be: that is the question” (3.1.56) soliloquy, where Hamlet have not even the strength to decide if he can bear life anymore than he already is. Perhaps Shakespeare does this to show the development of Hamlet throughout the play. He’s a weak boy that has just lost his father, but as the play progresses Hamlet grows into a young noble prince. Which is seen in Act V, “Here, thou insectous, merderous, damned Dane/ Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother” Hamlet takes action once and for all and kills off Claudius. It can be brought into question whether or not Hamlet only decided to do this once he …show more content…
Even as he’s dying, “But I do prophesy the election lights / On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.” Hamlet still admires what Fortinbras has done and him as a person, and it is Shakespeare 's intent to allow the audience to infer that Hamlet is trying to give Fortinbras what he could never achieve himself and what Fortinbras wanted, which was a throne, more specifically the throne of Denmark. Fortinbras never fully stated in the play how he felt about Hamlet, the audience is to assume that he was indifferent to Hamlet despite the friction between their fathers. In the final scene, after horatio has explained to Fortinbras and his army what has just happened “Let four captains / Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, / For he was likely, had he been put on, / To have proved most royally” is Fortinbras’ only words on his thoughts on Hamlet and it’s Shakespeare’s intent to show the readers that he only had respect for him as a leader and as