Hamlet Character map

Hamlet

Hamlet is the titular character of the play and the protagonist. Hamlet is the prince of Denmark. His parents are the King Hamlet (who is dead) and Queen Gertrude, who has married his Hamlet’s uncle (and current King) Claudius. Hamlet suffers from a lot of inner turmoil in the play, a lot of which stems from his rather cerebral, melancholy, almost philosophical nature. The most prominent example of this is his obsession with proving Claudius’ guilt in his father’s murder before taking revenge, which basically just leads him to fail at taking revenge in an effective way. However, despite the way I described him before, Hamlet is also prone to making really rash decisions at times in the play. In many ways, Hamlet is an enigma and he’s the kind of character that could have a description several paragraphs long.

Claudius

Claudius is the king of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle, and the antagonist of the play. Some characters in the play are preoccupied with ideas like justice or some sense of morality, but Claudius contrasts this by being a conniving villain who acts only in ways that allow him to maintain or consolidate power. An example is his marriage to Gertrude. Though it’s not certain if his love for her is sincere, it seems more than likely that it was a political move designed to help him secure the throne. Claudius’ main skill is his ability to use his words to manipulate others, which contrasts King Hamlet (who was a great warrior). Claudius is also meant to be an almost ironic character, since his preoccupation with Hamlet causes him to ignore other important issues (Fortinbras) and eventually him trying to kill Hamlet indirectly motivates Hamlet to take action.

Claudius

Gertrude

Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother and the Queen of Denmark. Gertrude is a very seemingly weak character, indeed one of the most famous lines about Gertrude is Hamlet’s “Frailty, thy name is woman!” when addressing her. Gertrude seems to be heavily dependant on the men in her life and in some ways just “Along for the ride”, doing whatever they need her to do and rarely doing anything of her own volition. One could also argue, though, that Gertrude simply uses these men to preserve herself and her high place in Denmark. Gertrude is a character whose motivations and priorities remain uncertain to the reader.

Ophelia

Ophelia is Polonius’ daughter and Hamlet’s love interest. Ophelia is a beautiful and innocent girl who is subservient to her father and brother (Laertes). She kind of relies on the males in her life to tell her what to do, ‘breaking up’ with Hamlet at her father’s request and eventually becoming complicit in Polonius’ scheme to spy on Hamlet. This leads to her basically having a mental breakdown and losing touch with reality after Polonius is dead, because she has lost the person that controls her. After doing a lot of symbolic singing and handing out of flowers, Ophelia dies by (maybe?) falling into a river and drowning.

Ophelia

Horatio

Horatio is Hamlet’s good friend who studied with him in Wittenberg. It’s not really clear what role, if any, Horatio has in the court but he is loyal to Hamlet and helps him during the play. Horatio remains alive when all of the other Danes in the story have killed each other, and Hamlet (before his death) tasks him with sharing his story. Most characters in the play don’t acknowledge him much and his primary purpose is to act as a sounding board for Hamlet’s character.

Fortinbras

Fortinbras is the Prince of Norway. His father, King Fortinbras, was slain by King Hamlet while he was still alive. Because of that, Fortinbras seeks revenge and wants to attack Denmark. Fortinbras doesn’t make an appearance until the end of the play, when most major characters are dead, but he is referenced throughout. In many ways, Fortinbras parallels Hamlet. His father, who had his name, died and he wants revenge. However, he is also a kind of foil to Hamlet because he is impulsive and actually takes his revenge in a successful way. Fortinbras ends up being made ruler of Denmark.

Polonius

Polonius is a member of King Claudius’ court and the father of Ophelia and Laertes. Polonius seems to be obsessed with his social standing, and he even uses his own daughter (multiple times) to keep himself in good standing with the king. He also spies on his son, seemingly because he wanted to make sure Laertes’ behavior reflected well on his family. Polonius is simply too caught up in appearances and ceremony for his own good and eventually he dies because of it. While he was alive, though, he did a good job at hiding his schemes and he was relatively successful in life because he was an advisor to the King.

Polonius