Character List

Hamlet - The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the

protagonist. About thirty years old at the start of the play, Hamlet is
the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the
nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter,
and cynical, full of hatred for his uncle’s scheming and disgust for
his mother’s sexuality. A reflective and thoughtful young man who
has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is often
indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to rash and
impulsive acts.
Hamlet has fascinated audiences and readers for centuries, and the
first thing to point out about him is that he is enigmatic. There is
always more to him than the other characters in the play can figure
out; even the most careful and clever readers come away with the
sense that they don’t know everything there is to know about this
character. Hamlet actually tells other characters that there is more
to him than meets the eye—notably, his mother, and Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern—but his fascination involves much more than
this. When he speaks, he sounds as if there’s something important
he’s not saying, maybe something even he is not aware of. The
ability to write soliloquies and dialogues that create this effect is one
of Shakespeare’s most impressive achievements.
A university student whose studies are interrupted by his father’s
death, Hamlet is extremely philosophical and contemplative. He is
particularly drawn to difficult questions or questions that cannot be
answered with any certainty. Faced with evidence that his uncle
murdered his father, evidence that any other character in a play
would believe, Hamlet becomes obsessed with proving his uncle’s
guilt before trying to act. The standard of “beyond a reasonable
doubt” is simply unacceptable to him. He is equally plagued with
questions about the afterlife, about the wisdom of suicide, about
what happens to bodies after they die—the list is extensive.
But even though he is thoughtful to the point of obsession, Hamlet
also behaves rashly and impulsively. When he does act, it is with
surprising swiftness and little or no premeditation, as when he stabs
Polonius through a curtain without even checking to see who he is.
He seems to step very easily into the role of a madman, behaving
erratically and upsetting the other characters with his wild speech
and pointed innuendos.
It is also important to note that Hamlet is extremely melancholy and
discontented with the state of affairs in Denmark and in his own
family—indeed, in the world at large. He is extremely disappointed
with his mother for marrying his uncle so quickly, and he repudiates
Ophelia, a woman he once claimed to love, in the harshest terms.
His words often indicate his disgust with and distrust of women in
general. At a number of points in the play, he contemplates his own
death and even the option of suicide.
But, despite all of the things with which Hamlet professes
dissatisfaction, it is remarkable that the prince and heir apparent of
Denmark should think about these problems only in personal and
philosophical terms. He spends relatively little time thinking about
the threats to Denmark’s national security from without or the
threats to its stability from within (some of which he helps to create
through his own carelessness).

Claudius - The King of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle, and the play’s

antagonist. The villain of the play, Claudius is a calculating,
ambitious politician, driven by his sexual appetites and his lust for
power, but he occasionally shows signs of guilt and human feeling
—his love for Gertrude, for instance, seems sincere.
Hamlet’s major antagonist is a shrewd, lustful, conniving king who
contrasts sharply with the other male characters in the play.
Whereas most of the other important men in Hamlet are
preoccupied with ideas of justice, revenge, and moral balance,
Claudius is bent upon maintaining his own power. The old King
Hamlet was apparently a stern warrior, but Claudius is a corrupt
politician whose main weapon is his ability to manipulate others
through his skillful use of language. Claudius’s speech is compared
to poison being poured in the ear—the method he used to murder
Hamlet’s father. Claudius’s love for Gertrude may be sincere, but it
also seems likely that he married her as a strategic move, to help
him win the throne away from Hamlet after the death of the king. As
the play progresses, Claudius’s mounting fear of Hamlet’s insanity
leads him to ever greater self-preoccupation; when Gertrude tells
him that Hamlet has killed Polonius, Claudius does not remark that
Gertrude might have been in danger, but only that he would have
been in danger had he been in the room. He tells Laertes the same
thing as he attempts to soothe the young man’s anger after his
father’s death. Claudius is ultimately too crafty for his own good. In
Act V, scene ii, rather than allowing Laertes only two methods of
killing Hamlet, the sharpened sword and the poison on the blade,
Claudius insists on a third, the poisoned goblet. When Gertrude
inadvertently drinks the poison and dies, Hamlet is at last able to
bring himself to kill Claudius, and the king is felled by his own
cowardly machination.

Gertrude - The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother, recently

married to Claudius. Gertrude loves Hamlet deeply, but she is a
shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and status more urgently
than moral rectitude or truth.
Few Shakespearean characters have caused as much uncertainty
as Gertrude, the beautiful Queen of Denmark. The play seems to
raise more questions about Gertrude than it answers, including:
Was she involved with Claudius before the death of her husband?
Did she love her husband? Did she know about Claudius’s plan to
commit the murder? Did she love Claudius, or did she marry him
simply to keep her high station in Denmark? Does she believe
Hamlet when he insists that he is not mad, or does she pretend to
believe him simply to protect herself? Does she intentionally betray
Hamlet to Claudius, or does she believe that she is protecting her
son’s secret?
These questions can be answered in numerous ways, depending
upon one’s reading of the play. The Gertrude who does emerge
clearly in Hamlet is a woman defined by her desire for station and
affection, as well as by her tendency to use men to fulfill her instinct
for self-preservation—which, of course, makes her extremely
dependent upon the men in her life. Hamlet’s most famous
comment about Gertrude is his furious condemnation of women in
general: “Frailty, thy name is woman!” (I.ii.146). This comment is as
much indicative of Hamlet’s agonized state of mind as of anything
else, but to a great extent Gertrude does seem morally frail. She
never exhibits the ability to think critically about her situation, but
seems merely to move instinctively toward seemingly safe choices,
as when she immediately runs to Claudius after her confrontation
with Hamlet. She is at her best in social situations (I.ii and V.ii),
when her natural grace and charm seem to indicate a rich, rounded
personality. At times it seems that her grace and charm are her only
characteristics, and her reliance on men appears to be her sole way
of capitalizing on her abilities.

Polonius - The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’s court, a pompous,

conniving old man. Polonius is the father of Laertes and Ophelia.
Horatio - Hamlet’s close friend, who studied with the prince at the
university in Wittenberg. Horatio is loyal and helpful to Hamlet
throughout the play. After Hamlet’s death, Horatio remains alive to
tell Hamlet’s story.

Ophelia - Polonius’s daughter, a beautiful young woman with

whom Hamlet has been in love. Ophelia is a sweet and innocent
young girl, who obeys her father and her brother, Laertes.
Dependent on men to tell her how to behave, she gives in to
Polonius’s schemes to spy on Hamlet. Even in her lapse into
madness and death, she remains maidenly, singing songs about
flowers and finally drowning in the river amid the flower garlands
she had gathered.

Laertes - Polonius’s son and Ophelia’s brother, a young man who

spends much of the play in France. Passionate and quick to action,
Laertes is clearly a foil for the reflective Hamlet.

Fortinbras - The young Prince of Norway, whose father the king

(also named Fortinbras) was killed by Hamlet’s father (also named
Hamlet). Now Fortinbras wishes to attack Denmark to avenge his
father’s honor, making him another foil for Prince Hamlet.
The Ghost - The specter of Hamlet’s recently deceased father. The
ghost, who claims to have been murdered by Claudius, calls upon
Hamlet to avenge him. However, it is not entirely certain whether
the ghost is what it appears to be, or whether it is something else.
Hamlet speculates that the ghost might be a devil sent to deceive
him and tempt him into murder, and the question of what the ghost
is or where it comes from is never definitively resolved.

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern - Two slightly bumbling courtiers,

former friends of Hamlet from Wittenberg, who are summoned by
Claudius and Gertrude to discover the cause of Hamlet’s strange
behavior.

Osric - The foolish courtier who summons Hamlet to his duel with
Laertes.

Voltimand And Cornelius - Courtiers whom Claudius sends to

Norway to persuade the king to prevent Fortinbras from attacking.
Marcellus And Bernardo - The officers who first see the ghost
walking the ramparts of Elsinore and who summon Horatio to
witness it. Marcellus is present when Hamlet first encounters the
ghost.

Francisco - A soldier and guardsman at Elsinore.

Reynaldo - Polonius’s servant, who is sent to France by Polonius

to check up on and spy on Laertes.