Hamlet: Encyclopedia II - Hamlet - Main characters

Hamlet - Main characters

Prince Hamlet, the title character, is the son of the late King of Denmark, who was also named Hamlet. He is a student at a school in Wittenburg. He is charged by the ghost of his father to avenge his murder, which he finally succeeds in doing, but only after the rest of the royal house has been wiped out and he himself has been mortally wounded with a poisoned rapier by Laertes.

Claudius is the current King of Denmark, Hamlet's uncle, who succeeded to the throne upon the death of his brother. The ghost of King Hamlet tells Prince Hamlet that he was murdered by brother Claudius, who poured hebenon in his ear while he was asleep. Claudius is killed with a poisoned rapier by Hamlet who, for good measure, also forces him to drink the wine with which he had intended to poison Hamlet.

King Hamlet (referred to in the stage directions as Ghost) was Hamlet's father. At the start of the play, he is not long dead. He appears to Hamlet as a ghost and urges him to avenge his murder. King Hamlet was killed by poison emptied into one of his ears. Hamlet questions whether the spirit really is the ghost of King Hamlet or whether it is a malicious demon in disguise, and his question is never definitively answered.

Gertrude is Hamlet's mother, the widow of King Hamlet who became the wife of Claudius, a relationship considered incestuous in Shakespeare's time. She dies by accidentally drinking poisoned wine intended for Hamlet.

Polonius is Claudius's chief councillor, who is distrustful of Hamlet's relationship with Ophelia. He is a fatuous bore, and Hamlet frequently teases him while pretending to be mentally unbalanced. He is fatally stabbed by Hamlet while hidden behind an arras while trying to eavesdrop upon a conversation between Hamlet and his mother.

Laertes is Polonius's son, who deeply cares for Ophelia, his sister, and spends much of the play in France. In the end, appalled by Hamlet's role in his sister's death, he works with Claudius to rig a dueling contest. In this contest, he kills Hamlet with a poisoned rapier to avenge the deaths of Polonius and Ophelia. Hamlet kills him with the same rapier, although at the time Hamlet did not realise it was poisoned.

Ophelia is Polonius' daughter. She and Hamlet have had romantic feelings for each other, although they (at least implicitly) have been warned that it would be politically inexpedient for them to marry. Jilted by Hamlet as part of his insanity ruse, her father's death causes her to go insane, and she drowns in a brook.

Horatio is a friend of Hamlet's from university. He is not directly involved in the intrigue among the royals, which enables the author to use him as a foil or sounding board for Hamlet. Hamlet commissions him to name Fortinbras King of Denmark and tell Hamlet's story. He is the most important character alive at the end of the play, as his threats to commit suicide are dismissed by Hamlet before he dies.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are old school-fellows of Hamlet, who were summoned to the castle by Claudius to keep a watch on Hamlet. Hamlet soon suspects that they are spies. They die off-stage in England, executed by the King's warrant for Hamlet's death, altered by Hamlet to name them.

Fortinbras is the Norwegian crown prince who has only a couple of brief scenes in the play, but who delivers its final lines and appears to represent the hope for a better future for the Danish monarchy and its subjects.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Main characters", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki