Character Analysis of Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet Essay Sample

English nonconformist and academic administrator at Oxford University John Owen said: “There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so whilst we live in this world.” A foil, in literary definitions, is “a character who contrasts with another character, typically, a character who contrasts with the protagonist, to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist.” Laertes is the perfect definition of a foil. Comparing Laertes, to the protagonist in the story, Hamlet, they seem to be close to the exact opposites. While they are undergoing almost the same situations, the ways that they react to these situations are drastically different. Although Laertes and Hamlet have some similarities, because of their actions and how they differ, Laertes is a foil to hamlet. 

Even from the beginning of the story, Laertes is starting to show a disliking towards Hamlet, before they truly knew each other. Laertes tells Ophelia:

“Fear it, Ophelia. Fear it my dear sister,

And keep you in the rear of your affection,

Out of the shot and danger of desire.

The chariest maid is prodigal enough

If she unmasks her beauty, to the moon.

Virtue itself ‘scapes not calumnious 

strokes.” (Shakespeare I.iii.37)

Laertes, here in act one, is setting the precedent that he is not going to get along with Hamlet and that they are going to conflict with the story. The main idea of this quote is that Laertes is telling Ophelia to be careful around Hamlet, as he seems to know that something bad will happen to Ophelia if she is not careful around her. This quote seems to be the start of Laerte’s disliking towards Hamlet, causing him to become more of a foil as the story goes on.

The point in which Laertes defines himself as a foil is when Hamlet kills Polonius, Laertes’s father. Almost the second that Laertes finds out that his father has been slain, Laertes knows that he is going to get his revenge, one way or another. Laertes states this quote just after he was told about his father’s death: 

“And so have I a noble father lost,

A sister driven into desperate terms, 

Whose worth, if praises may go back again,

Stood challenger on mount of all the age

For her perfections. But my revenge will come.” (Shakespeare IV.vii.225)

This thought of revenge is what connects Hamlet and Laertes as foils. What surrounds Hamlet’s motive and drive through the entire play. Claudius had killed Hamlet’s father, and now Hamlet wants to get revenge for his father’s death and kill Claudius. With the death of Polonius, Laertes is now following that same idea. Laertes wants to get revenge for his father’s death and kill Hamlet. The death of Laertes’s sister Ophelia similarly fuels the rage and hunger for revenge that Laertes has towards Hamlet. As stated above, Laertes, even from the beginning, seemed to be predicting that something bad was going to happen to Ophelia due to the relationship between her and Hamlet. The drive that Laertes is given due to all of the harm that Hamlet had done to Laertes’s father, along with his sister, provides more significance of him being a foil to Hamlet. Laertes’s form of physical revenge instead of Hamlet’s verbal revenge is evident in the death of Ophelia as well. Only minutes after Laertes is informed of the death of his father, he is informed of the death of his sister due to suicide. Laertes truly knew that the causation of the suicide was the death of their father and the grief that it had caused, leading to the point that Hamlet had caused this. While this may seem that Hamlet and Laertes are doing the same actions and have the same motives, the way that Hamlet and Laertes go about their actions are drastically different. Laertes goes about his way of revenge in a very physical way. Challenging Hamlet to a fencing duel, which Hamlet would have never done with Claudius. Hamlet does his forms of revenge in a very trickery way. Playing people’s minds through words and actions. Laertes and Hamlet seem to be so similar, yet so far apart and different at the same time. Laertes shows his physical way of revenge through this quote: “I will do’t. And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword. / With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly it may be death.” (Shakespeare IV.vii.233) Laertes strictly states his plan to kill Hamlet through physical force. With this thought of Laertes killing Hamlet, Laertes could be possibly seen as an antagonist. Solidifying his definition as a foil similarly.  

In continuation, as Shakespeare is writing this, he seems to be giving a very obvious point that Laertes is a foil to Hamlet by almost directly stating it. Hamlet says: “I’ll be your foil, Laertes.” (Shakespeare V.ii.275) While in this case, Hamlet is talking about the sword that they are dueling with, named a foil, he is also stating that he and Laertes are foils. Although Hamlet is talking directly about the foil itself, Shakespeare wrote this in a way to represent that Laertes and Hamlets are foils to one another. With this statement that they are foils, it does feel ironic that they both happen to die in the same way by the death of the foil. Laertes being a foil, seems to kill him in the end. His determination to kill Hamlet to avenge not only his father, but his sister as well who has died, kills him. The trickery that Laertes tries to play on Hamlet to kill him with poisoned foil, is what ends up killing not only Laertes but Hamlet as well. 

Although Laertes and Hamlet have some similarities, because of their actions and how they differ, Laertes is the perfect example of a foil in this play.  Laertes, although not a very vital character in the first half of the play, is a very important character to show the magnitude of Hamlet’s strengths and weaknesses.