Hamlet:4

                                                          Major Characters 

   King Claudius: An ambitious and deceitful murderer, Claudius secretly assassinated his brother, King Hamlet, to steal his crown and his queen. While King Hamlet slumbered in his orchard, Claudius poured a deadly poison in his ear. With Hamlet’s death ruled accidental, Claudius took the throne and hastily married Queen Gertrude, his brother’s widow. Aware of young Fortinbras’ intent to forcefully reclaim land lost to Denmark, Claudius dispatches ambassadors to Norway with a letter instructing the King to suppress young Fortinbras’ (Prince of Norway) advance. Gloomy young Hamlet is a pest and a danger to Claudius. In secret letters written to the English King, Claudius unsuccessfully orders Prince Hamlet’s murder. Hamlet stages ‘The Mousetrap’ play - a close re-enactment of King Hamlet’s murder - to prod Claudius’ guilty conscience. The horrified King stops the performance and attempts to pray for forgiveness. However, because he still possesses his crown, his queen, and his ambition, the guilt-ridden murderer knows that his repentance is insincere. Prince Hamlet nearly kills Claudius as he prays, but stops himself when he realizes that death during prayer sends the confessor’s soul directly to heaven. King Claudius concocts a plan to slay Hamlet through a rigged fencing competition. The set-up turns into a royal massacre. Claudius dies from his own treachery when Hamlet slashes him with a poisoned rapier. 

Queen Gertrude: Within one month of losing her beloved King Hamlet, the widowed Queen Gertrude hastily married her dead husband’s own brother, Claudius. Gertrude’s disloyalty to King Hamlet and her incestuous lust for Claudius galls Prince Hamlet, Gertrude’s son, and spurs his need for vengeance. Hamlet scorns his mother and denounces women as frail, inconstant, and deceitful. Though he chastises Gertrude, Hamlet resolves not to harm his mother. Her own guilty conscience and heaven’s judgment are punishment enough for betraying her noble husband with his foul brother. Hamlet instructs his mother to abstain from his uncle’s incestuous bed and discloses his actual sanity to her. Queen Gertrude breaks the news that Ophelia has drowned  and offers an eerie eyewitness account. During the rigged fencing competition, the Queen toasts her son’s good fortune. Drinking from Claudius’ poisoned chalice, she falls to the floor, dead. 

Polonius: A distinguished lord who acts as the King’s principal advisor. Polonius has a habit of making long-winded speeches and his main activity is spying. Father to Laertes and Ophelia, he is concerned about the reputation of his son and the chastity of his daughter. Polonius urges his son to depart for Paris, yet he detains Laertes with an extensive list of paternal instructions. The suspicious father even instructs his servant Reynaldo to spy on Laertes in Paris and to report on his son’s behavior. Concerning Ophelia, Polonius warns his daughter that her youthful suitor Hamlet is untrustworthy and lustful. He instructs his daughter to treat Hamlet coldly, to distrust his vows of love, and to avoid his company. Polonius tries to persuade the King that an unsatisfied lust for Ophelia has caused the Prince’s madness. He plants his daughter in Hamlet’s path and hides with King Claudius to spy on their fixed encounter. When that set-up proves unconvincing, Polonius decides to spy on a private conversation between mother and son in Queen Gertrude’s chamber. Polonius hides behind an arras (curtain) and yelps when Hamlet’s rage endangers the Queen. Thinking the spy is King Claudius, Hamlet plunges his sword through the curtain and kills Polonius. Hamlet hides the lord’s body. When the corpse is finally found, it is buried in ‘hugger-mugger’ fashion without ceremony, a dishonor that greatly enrages Laertes. 

Laertes: Son of Polonius and brother to Ophelia. In town for King Claudius’ recent coronation, Laertes begs leave to return to Paris. Bound for France, Laertes advises Ophelia to maintain her chastity and to disregard Hamlet’s courtship. Polonius delays Laertes’ departure with long-winded advice and he employs a spy to investigate Laertes’ reputation in Paris. To avenge Polonius’ murder, Laertes storms back to Denmark with a mutinous rabble of supporters. King Claudius calms his vengeance by arranging a rigged fencing competition through which the expert swordsman Laertes may murder Hamlet with a poisoned blade. The fixed sport turns into a royal massacre. Both Laertes and Hamlet are mortally wounded by the poisoned sword. They make peace with one another and die. 

Ophelia: A chaste maiden who is Polonius’ daughter and Hamlet’s love interest. Acting on her father’s strict advice, Ophelia rejects Hamlet’s love poems and passionate courtship. Because Prince Hamlet is a lusty youth who is also royalty, Polonius argues that Hamlet’s love for Ophelia cannot be sincere. Both Polonius and Laertes, her brother, advise Ophelia to guard her virginity against Hamlet’s dishonorable intentions. When Prince Hamlet becomes mad, Polonius contends that his insanity is a love sickness rooted in Ophelia’s rejection. Polonius and Claudius spy on a rigged meeting between the two former sweethearts. Denouncing unchaste women, Hamlet madly advises Ophelia to become a celibate nun. The woeful maiden loses her own sanity when Hamlet murders her father and Polonius is denied a proper court burial. The deranged maiden sings wildly, plays on a lute, and distributes symbolic flowers. Gertrude delivers the shocking news that Ophelia has drowned. Hanging garlands from a willow tree, the demented girl plunged into the river below. Suicide is suspected, but she is given a Christian burial by a suspicious priest. Hamlet and Laertes both jump into her open grave, wretched at her loss but ready to fight one another. 

Prince Hamlet: The gloomy young Prince who constantly wavers between vengeance and suicide. Hamlet’s melancholy is initially the result of his mother’s hasty and disloyal marriage to Claudius, her late husband’s brother. When young Hamlet learns from his father’s ghost that Claudius murdered him, the young Prince swears vengeance. He pledges to treat his mother harshly, but to refrain from harming her. As part of his revenge plot, Hamlet pretends to have lost his sanity. The mad Prince stages ‘The Mousetrap’ play to judge Claudius’ guilt. He kills the spy, Polonius, and drives Ophelia to insanity. Escaping death, Hamlet intercepts a treacherous letter from Claudius, which orders his execution. Forging a new letter, Hamlet orders the King of England to execute Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead. Plagued by gloominess 

and self-hatred, Hamlet often contemplates suicide and berates himself for delaying his vengeance. Compared to the fiercely active Fortinbras, Hamlet feels like an idle loser. Set-up by Claudius and Laertes, Hamlet is slain in a fencing competition by Laertes’ poisoned rapier. Before he dies, however, Hamlet slashes Claudius with the same blade and finally kills him. 

Horatio: Hamlet’s school companion from Wittenberg. Horatio is a wise scholar and a true friend in whom Prince Hamlet regularly confides. Visiting Denmark for King Hamlet’s funeral, Horatio is invited by the Elsinore guards to their night-time watch. Horatio witnesses the roaming spirit of King Hamlet and informs Prince Hamlet of his father’s unsettled soul. During ‘The Mousetrap’ play, Horatio confirms Hamlet’s perception of Claudius’ guilt. Against Horatio’s advice, Hamlet participates in the fatal fencing tournament arranged by Claudius. As Hamlet lays dying, Horatio pledges to tell the world of Hamlet’s tragic story. 

Prince Fortinbras: The hot-headed Prince of Norway who sets out to reclaim his father’s land from Denmark. In the past, old King Fortinbras challenged King Hamlet to a battle over disputed territory, with the mutual agreement that the loser’s land would be forfeited to the winner. King Hamlet slew Fortinbras and, according to their deal, Denmark justly assumed old Fortinbras’ lands. At the beginning of the play, young Fortinbras has vengefully gathered a rabble of fighters to challenge Denmark and to recover his father’s land.  Fortinbras’ sickly uncle is the new King of Norway. He mistakes Prince Fortinbras’ movements on Denmark as legitimate actions against Poland. Learning of Fortinbras’ disobedient conduct from King Claudius’ Danish ambassadors, Norway forces Fortinbras to end all ventures against Denmark.  Fortinbras agrees to peace and Claudius graciously grants Fortinbras’ army safe passage through Denmark on its way to fight Poland. Compared with the active and warring Fortinbras, Hamlet feels idle and cowardly. Fortinbras’ army returns victorious from Poland and passes through Denmark during the royal massacre. Hamlet uses his dying voice to support Fortinbras as the next elected monarch of Denmark.