Pennsylvania College of Technology   Dr. Vavra's ENL 121: Lit & Comp

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1     The play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, could be considered as a modern day soap opera. It contains everything from murder to betrayal and a lot of drama. Each character appears to be going through some sort of problem in the play. Of all the characters, Hamlet has the most hardships. In order to show why Hamlet makes the choices he does, who he is, and what he is about, Shakespeare manipulates Laertes and the ghost as foils for Hamlet. In using [Ref -- This means that the reader uses foils.] foils, the reader can become more familiar with Hamlet.

2     To fully understand the concepts of foils in a play, one must understand what a foil means. According to[,] The Random House College Dictionary [sic], a foil is, " A person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast" (511). By showing [Ref -- This means that the reader is doing the showing.] the similarities and differences between a minor character (Laertes or the ghost) and a major character (Hamlet), the reader can grasp a better understanding of Hamlet. Another purpose of a foil is to merely be there for the major character to talk to. The ghost achieves this function by coming around to speak with Hamlet. This is the ghost's only cause for being there. [Hmmm, "only cause"?] The reason foils are important in Hamlet, is because with the help of [the] Laertes and the ghost, the reader is given the opportunity to see how each of these minor characters helps to enhance Hamlet's understanding. [Hamlet's or the audience's?]

3     To see Laertes as a foil for Hamlet, you must first examine the similarities. The most obvious are the age and sex of the characters. Hamlet and Laertes are both of the relative same age, and they are both males. Their fathers are both dead. Laertes' father's murder was committed by Hamlet. While speaking with his mother, Hamlet, "Thrusts his rapier through the arras" (692). Polonius is behind the arras. He kills him. Hamlet's father is also murdered. According to the ghost, "'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, a serpent stung me. So the whole ear or Denmark is by a forged process of my death . . . the serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown" (648). The ghost tells his son to, "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (648). This causes Hamlet to become revenge oriented. Laertes is also driven to revenge due to [the fact of] his father's death. Due to this revenge, the men both are stabbed by a poisonous sword, which kills them both.

4    The differences are just as important to the foil as similarities. As stated in the similarities, both of the men's fathers are murdered. However, the way they are murdered is different. Hamlet's father is murdered by[;] Claudius[,] and Laertes['] father is murdered by Hamlet. King Hamlet is murdered by poison and Polonious is[,] stabbed by a sword. Each of these differences helps to add to the significance of Laertes as a foil for Hamlet. Due to the fact that both are out for revenge, they kill each other to avenge their father's murders. These differences, the different murders of their fathers, make for the dual [duel], which causes the death of both of the men.

 5     The ghost could be ["is also"?] a foil for Hamlet in the play. Some of the similarities between the ghost and Hamlet are that they are both males and they are related to one another. King Hamlet is the father of Hamlet. Their social class is the same due to the fact that they are related. Another similarity is that they both have a love for the Queen, Gertrude. When the ghost was speaking with Hamlet he said, "Taint not thy mind nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven" (650). This shows his love for his wife even after she married his brother. Another similarity is the fact that they both die by poison. All of these similarities can create a link between the ghost and Hamlet as a foil.

6     The differences between the ghost and Hamlet are the fact that obviously, one is dead and one is alive (at least in the meeting). However, the way they die is different. King Hamlet died by poison and Hamlet died by a poisonous sword. King Hamlet's death is important to the play because, without his murder Hamlet would not have a reason to avenge his father's death [because he would not be dead]. Revenge would no longer be his prime motivation in life. The ghost is just a minor character in that ["the"?] play that ["who"] only talks to Hamlet. This helps to make him a foil because his main reason for being there is to simply talk with Hamlet. He tells him why he is an apparition and what happened to him. [Isn't it supposed to be the other way around -- the foil is there for the major character to talk to?]

7     The ghost and Laertes are important characters in the play Hamlet. Without them, you would not fully understand what causes Hamlet to do the things he does. [You haven't given very many specific examples of this.] Through the similarities you see how the foils can be related to one another. With the differences the reader can see something about[,] Hamlet's personality that the [?] he may not have see before if he was not comparing the ghost or Laertes to Hamlet. Foils simply enhance your perception of the character. [Change just the names, and this paragraph could be used to conclude an essay on foils in A Doll's House. That makes the conclusion a bit too broad.]

     [This is a solid paper, but below your norm. I'm curious about what happened.]
 

Student's Comments: (You can also use the back of either page.)

     -- this was very hard. I can get the similarities but to show the differences & explain them in detail why their [sic] important was hard for me.
 
     The explanation of similarites and differences is solid and good, but perhaps your problem resulted from not looking at what each foil added to the meaning of the play?

NOTE: Revising = RV. Remember: use only one code per entry. (See Instructions.)

I used a word-processor _____while drafting _____ while revising _____ to type my paper.