MaDNesS :: Essays Papers

MaDNesS (1) In many short stories and plays there are persons involved which [who] help characterize other main characters. This process of characterization is called a foil. [A foil is not a process.] "A foil is a minor character, who by similarities and differences, reveals characteristics of a more important character, and who, as an element of plot, is there for the more important character to talk to" (Vavra). The foils in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, help the reader understand the main character; [, not ;] Hamlet. (2) Hamlet’s "excellent good friends", Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are prime examples of a foil (Act 2, Scene 2 line 218). [Note] Claudius, the king, sent for them explicitly to find out what has been bothering him. [Ref - "him" here grammatically refers to Claudius, not to Hamlet.] When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive in Denmark, Hamlet is aware that something is amiss. He begins to question them in a puzzling manner. Through Hamlet[']s questioning of them, we learn that Hamlet is very observant of suspicious behavior. This is seen again in Act 3, Scene 2 when Hamlet has the "players" perform a play of his father’s murder. Throughout the theatrical performance, Hamlet had no doubt that Claudius, his uncle, murdered his brother for the throne. (3) The realization of his father’s murder begins with the conversation he had with his father’s ghost. The ghost tells him to "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder"(Act 1, Scene 5 line 26). [Note] Because of his father[']s murder[,] he begins to go insane. This insanity, or madness, increases during the play’s progression. The idea of madness is suggested later on in the play when Laertes learns of his father’s death. Laertes’s madness comes about suddenly, rather than gradually. The characters, Hamlet and Laertes, have other comparisons [similarities?] which help characterize Hamlet. (4) Laertes, brother of Ophelia, has a unique type [Can a "type" be "unique"?] of love, known only to brothers and sisters. He cares for his sister, and advises her to stay distant from Hamlet, because his love for her might be false. Hamlet has a strong love for her, but until the end of the play it is questionable, to both the reader and the other characters. When he sees that she has died, he states his love for her, "forty-thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum" (Act 5, Scene 1 lines 243-245).