Characters The king appears in state accompanied by attendants, and attendants wait on various members of Danish court and visitors to the court. Attendants follow the king when he enters or exits a scene. They are sent by the king to look for the body of Polonius. Attendants separate Hamlet and Laertes when they fight at Ophelia's funeral. Barnardo, with Francisco and Marcellus, is one of the guards of the Danish ruler's castle, Elsinore. He and Marcellus have seen the ghost twice before the opening of the play, and have chosen to tell Prince Hamlet's scholarly friend Horatio about the occurrence. Barnardo speaks the play's first, ominous words: "Who's there?" (i.i.l). Claudius is the king of Denmark and brother of the dead king, which makes him Hamlet's uncle. Claudius has killed his brother to gain the throne and has married his brother's wife, Gertrude. Throughout the play, the nature of Claudius's kingship is displayed. Because Claudius is shrewd and able, though not always ethical or moral, Ham let describes the contest of intelligence and will between them as that of "mighty opposites" (V.ii.62). Claudius has a number of foreign and domestic problems to contend with. One of the first internal problems is to have the country accept him as king. This is handled by having the Council support his marriage to Gertrude and his kingship, and Claudius refers to their support—that they "have freely gone / With this affair along" (I.ii.15-6)—in his opening remarks as he sits in state. The Danish kingdom is threatened from without by young Fortinbras, son of the old ruler of Norway, who was killed by Hamlet's father. Old Fortinbras's defeat and death resulted in a forfeiture of lands to Denmark; however, young Fortinbras wants the lands returned and thinks to take advantage of the upheaval in Denmark, occasioned by King Hamlet's death, to mount an attack. Claudius sends ambassadors to young Fortinbras's uncle (the brother of that country's dead king and presumably the current king of Norway), asking him to restrain his nephew and make him abide by the heraldic rules of the conflict between old Fortinbras and old Hamlet. The king has noticed that Hamlet has been depressed since his father's funeral two months ago, and advises him that it is against heaven, the dead, and nature itself to continue immoderate grieving. Claudius names Hamlet as his immediate heir to the throne of Denmark and urges him to remain in Denmark as the "chiefest courtier" (I.ii. 117) rather than returning to school in Wittenberg. Meanwhile, the ghost appears to Hamlet, who subsequently vows revenge for the death of his father. Hamlet however avoids acting on this promise. The king sends for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, friends of Hamlet from his youth, to try to learn what is troubling him. Claudius also listens to Polonius's claim that Hamlet is troubled by lovesickness for Ophelia. He agrees to test this theory by observing Hamlet in conversation with Ophelia. Though Polonius continues to be convinced of his own view, the king alertly dismisses this view after their concealed observation of Hamlet. He says: "Love? his affections do not that way tend" (III.i.162) and realizes "There's something in his soul / O'er which his melancholy sits on brood" (III.i. 164-5). Claudius plans to send Hamlet to England for a change of scene. He even agrees to Polonius's suggested intermediate step of having Hamlet talk to the queen about his changed demeanor. In III.ii, the king witnesses his own crime in a play performed before the royal court. When one of the actors pours poison in another actor's ear, the king rises enraged, calling for lights, and leaves. Alone in his room, Claudius tries to pray for forgiveness for his misdeeds but acknowledges to himself that he is not truly penitent because he still enjoys, "those effects for which I did the murther [murder]: / My crown, my own ambition, and my queen" (III.iii.54-55). Fearing for his own safety, the king commissions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to take Hamlet to England as soon as possible. However, he does not tell Gertrude that he has given Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sealed letters to the English king calling for Hamlet's execution in England. Concern about public opinion regarding the quick burial of Polonius, the removal of Hamlet from the Danish realm, Ophelia's madness, and Laertes's return from France, compound the king's problems. However, the king is adept in handling Laertes, who initially suspects the king's involvement in the death of Polonius. Claudius says very majestically that "divinity doth hedge a king" (IV.v.124) and appears unafraid by the menacing manner of Laertes. He directs an angry, amazed, and grieving Laertes to let Laertes's wisest followers judge whether the king was involved directly or indirectly in Polonius's death. In a gesture of bravado, the king says he will give up his kingdom, crown, life, and all to Laertes if the followers implicate him in Polonius's death. He further explains to Laertes that no public inquiry was possible because the queen loves Hamlet and also because the public regards Hamlet so well. When the king and Laertes discover together that Hamlet is returning to Denmark, Claudius announces his plan to have Hamlet killed, and Laertes expresses his desire to be a part of that plan. As the details are discussed, Claudius persuades Laertes to agree to a plan less straightforward than Laertes's desire to "cut his [Hamlet's] throat i' the' church" (IV.vii.126). In the end, Claudius is tripped up by his own multiple plots against Hamlet; his queen dies by drinking the poisoned wine, intended to be a back-up plan to kill Hamlet, and Claudius himself is killed when Ham let wounds him with the poisoned sword. See Gravediggers Cornelius and Voltemand are Danish ambassadors, sent by King Claudius in I.ii.26-38, to the king of Norway, the uncle of young Fortinbras, to urge him to squelch his nephew's threats against Danish land. They return in II.ii.40 to report that their mission was successful. The Council is a governing body present with the king at official meetings. The Council is said by the king to have approved of his marriage to Gertrude and his succession to the Danish throne. The doctor of divinity is a clergyman who reluctantly officiates at the funeral and burial of Ophelia. When Laertes calls for more elaborate religious ceremony, the doctor states that it is a profanation to bury a probable suicide in sanctified grounds with holy rites. Laertes replies in anger: "I tell thee, churlish priest / A minist'ring angel shall my sister be / When thou liest howling" (V.i.240- 42). The embassadors (or ambassadors) enter the Danish court at the end of the play. They report the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Fortinbras is the heir to the throne of Norway. His situation resembles that of Hamlet: his father was king, and his uncle is currently ruling. Prior to the play, the old Norwegian King Fortinbras lost both his life and Norwegian lands in the battle with King Hamlet. Early in the play, young Fortinbras is described as seeking to regain the lost Norwegian land during the period of uncertainty following King Hamlet's death. Negotiations between King Claudius and the current king of Norway, however, result in Fortinbras agreeing to cease hostilities in Denmark. He petitions for safe passage through Denmark to Poland. Hamlet describes Fortinbras as "a delicate and tender prince" (IV.iv.48) who is easily incited to fight in the cause of personal or national pride. He passes through Denmark on his return from his conquest of Poland, and is named by the dying Prince Hamlet as the most likely successor to the throne of Denmark. Fortinbras orders a soldier's funeral for Hamlet, arid speaks the last words of the play, commending Hamlet as likely to have been a good ruler. Francisco is a guard on watch at the opening of the play. He is relieved by Barnardo. Since the night is cold, he is glad to go in. He reports that his watch passed by undisturbed: "Not a mouse stirring" (I.i. 10). An unnamed gentleman announces Ophelia's presence to the queen. When the queen seems disinclined to see Ophelia, he plainly states the case for seeing her, describing her distracted speech. An unnamed gentleman announces to Horatio the sailors who come with Hamlet's letter. Gertrude, queen of Denmark, is the widow of the late King Hamlet and the mother of Prince Hamlet, who is the title character of the play. Gertrude has recently married her brother-in-law. Claudius, the new king, is the brother of the late king and thus Prince Hamlet's uncle. Gertrude is central to the action of the play, despite the fact that she has relatively few lines. Hamlet's disgust with his mother's marrying less than two months after his father's death and marrying Claudius is one of the main subjects of his agonized reflections in the course of the play. Not only does Hamlet consider Claudius inferior to his father in every respect, but in Shakespeare's time, it was considered a form of incest for a widow to marry her brother-in-law. Gertrude first appears I.ii, where she urges Hamlet not to mourn his father's death excessively. In the soliloquy that follows, Hamlet expresses a general weariness and disgust with life, which he links directly to his feelings about his mother's marriage. Later in Act I, Hamlet encounters the ghost of his father. The ghost accuses Claudius of murdering him and bitterly denounces his brother for seducing Gertrude. Critics continue to dispute whether the ghost's words mean that Gertrude had an adulterous relationship with Claudius before King .Hamlet's death, or whether he is referring to their relationship after his death. While demanding that Hamlet avenge his murder, the ghost orders him not to harm Gertrude. While Gertrude says relatively little, some of her comments are insightful and to the point. She cuts short a lengthy explanation from the longwinded Polonius by urging him to produce "more matter with less art" (II.ii.95). Later, during the performance by the players, the player queen makes a long and passionate declaration of devotion to her husband; Gertrude observes,' "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" (III.ii.230). Gertrude's most dramatic moments come in the highly emotional "closet scene" (III.iv), which takes place in her private chamber or "closet." Acting on Polonius's advice ("Tell him [Hamlet] his pranks have been tobroad [unrestrained] to bear with" [III.iv.2]), the queen calls Hamlet to her chamber, where Polonius is listening behind a curtain. The queen begins by scolding Hamlet for offending Claudius. Hamlet responds by accusing her of marrying Claudius out of purely sexual desire. Hearing Polonius behind the curtain, Hamlet stabs him through the curtain and kills him, apparently mistaking him for Claudius. He then reveals to Gertrude his belief that Claudius killed his father. Hamlet's tirade against the queen is cut short when the ghost (who is invisible to Gertrude) again appears to Hamlet and reminds him of his mission of revenge. Toward the end of the scene, Gertrude expresses remorse for her behavior. Her lines, however, do not make clear whether she already knew or, indeed, believes that Claudius murdered Hamlet's father, and whether she thinks Hamlet is sane or mad. Stage and film productions of the play have interpreted these questions in many different ways. Although Gertrude does not subsequently abandon Claudius, neither does she reveal to him Ham let's suspicions. She dies in the final scene of the play, when she drinks from a cup of poisoned wine prepared by Claudius and intended for Hamlet. In her dying words she tells Hamlet that the wine is poisoned. Critics generally regard Gertrude as weak willed, highly dependent on Claudius and easily manipulated by him. Some critics, however, take a more positive view of her character, arguing that her pointed remarks reveal a perceptive intelligence. Before the play begins, King Hamlet of Den mark has been found dead. His brother Claudius has become king and has married the widowed queen, Gertrude. Prince Hamlet, grieving the loss of his father and his mother's hasty and incestuous (by Elizabethan standards) remarriage, has descended into a deep melancholy. Moreover, on two consecutive nights the ghost has appeared in armor to palace guards on the battlements of the castle. The two guards have told no one about the ghost except Hamlet's friend Horatio, who has agreed to stand guard with them to see if the ghost appears again. In I.i, the ghost appears to the two guards and Horatio. Horatio commands the ghost to speak, but it does not. It then reappears and seems about to speak to Horatio, but when a cock crows, signaling daybreak, the ghost vanishes. Horatio resolves to tell Prince Hamlet about the sighting. Hamlet is startled by Horatio's story and decides to watch for the ghost himself. In I.iv, the ghost reappears in the presence of Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus and beckons Hamlet to withdraw privately with it. When they are alone in I.v, the ghost tells Hamlet that it is the spirit of Hamlet's father, murdered by Claudius. The ghost denounces Claudius for seducing Gertrude and calls for Hamlet to avenge his death but not to harm Gertrude. The ghost then vanishes. When Horatio and Marcellus appear, Hamlet repeatedly orders them to swear that they will not reveal what they have seen. Hamlet vows vengeance, but later expresses doubt about the ghost's identity, speculating that it could be a devil appearing in his father's form to tempt him to sin. This reaction characterizes his attitude toward the ghost until the play scene (III.ii). Hamlet's own uncertainty is mirrored in the critical debate about the nature of the ghost. Most critics agree that Shakespeare intended audiences to accept the apparition as the ghost of Hamlet's father, but some contend that it may be an illusion or a demon. Some critics argue that the ghost is in fact a devil whose object is to lure Hamlet to his own demise by arousing his passion for vengeance. Another interpretation is that the ghost is a hallucination seen by only a few characters. The ghost makes a final appearance in III.iv, shortly after Hamlet stabs Polonius, who has been secretly listening to a confrontation between Hamlet and Gertrude. The ghost reminds Hamlet that he is sworn to vengeance, and as they talk Hamlet expresses his shameful regret that he has not yet acted against Claudius. T h e ghost then draws Hamlet's attention to Gertrudes's "amazement" and urges him to assist her in her moral struggle. Gertrude claims to neither see nor hear the ghost, and this supports the critical interpretation that the apparition Hamlet describes to her is a symptom of his madness. Gertrude's apparent inability to see the ghost has led some critics to suggest that Shakespeare wanted his audience, too, to interpret the ghost as a hallucination. Most critics, however, agree with the view that prevailed during the first three centuries after the writing of Hamlet, that the ghost was meant to be taken literally. The gravediggers (in some editions referred to as "clowns") are two rustic working men. One of them, referred to as Goodman Delver, has been sexton (or church warden) for 30 years—ever since "that very day that young Hamlet was born" (V.i.147), which establishes Hamlet's age at this point in the play. The two appear together at the beginning of Act V, engaged in their task of digging Ophelia's grave. They discuss the questionable circumstances of Ophelia's death, and wonder if Christian burial is warranted for an apparent suicide (Church law forbade burying suicides in consecrated ground). The sexton sends the other gravedigger off to fetch "a sup of liquor" (V.i.60). Hamlet and Horatio encounter him at his work, singing merrily and unearthing bones and dirt together. Hamlet enters into a jocular, equivocating exchange with the sexton, who matches wits handily with the prince. Hamlet becomes serious and contemplative when the gravedigger reveals the identity of one skull as that of Yorick, old King Hamlet's jester and a companion of Hamlet's childhood. The king's guard carries torches to the play. The king is accompanied by two or three guards after Polonius's death. The king calls for his "Swissers" (IV.v.98), or Swiss guards, when a noise is heard after Ophelia's exit and just before Laertes's bursting into the scene at the head of a mob. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are friends from Hamlet's youth sent for by the king and queen to learn the cause of Hamlet's change of personality. The two are perfectly willing to supply covert intelligence to the king. While both profess to be concerned about Hamlet's welfare, because it is bound up with the welfare of the Danish state, they are commonly considered by commentators on the play as opportunists who are currying royal favor with Claudius solely to remain in the good graces of the current power structure. Their exchanges with Hamlet generally reveal that he is suspicious of them, mistrustful of their purpose in court, and too wary to reveal anything about himself to them. With Rosencrantz, Guildenstern is unknowingly sent to his death in England by Hamlet's discovery of Claudius's plot and Hamlet's quick construction of a counter-plot. Hamlet, prince of Denmark and son of Gertrude and the late King Hamlet of Denmark, is the title character of Hamlet. When the play opens, he is distraught over his father's recent death, his mother's remarriage to his father's brother Claudius, and the ascension of Claudius to the throne of Denmark. Hamlet's distress turns to rage when a ghost appears in the shape of his dead father and tells Hamlet that Claudius poisoned him. Hamlet vows to avenge his father's murder. Hamlet's erratic behavior as he contemplates acting against Claudius prompts the king and his councillor, Polonius, to employ devious methods to discover the reason for Hamlet's apparent madness. To this end, Claudius and Gertrude summon to Elsinore two of Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and ask them to find out what is troubling the prince. Hamlet sees through this ploy, and throughout the play treats Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and even Claudius with some contempt. Meanwhile, in several melancholy soliloquies which include reflections on mortality, suicide, honor, and the apparent futility of life, Hamlet berates himself for his long delay in taking revenge. Hamlet's supposed insanity includes bizarre behavior towards Polonius's daughter Ophelia, whom he once courted. This convinces Polonius, who had ordered Ophelia to stop seeing Hamlet, that the prince has gone mad out of unrequited love. Claudius and Polonius spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia during which Hamlet implies that he never loved Ophelia and makes several derogatory comments about women and the nature of marriage. (This scene is often called the "nunnery" scene because Hamlet repeatedly tells Ophelia to "get thee to a nunnery" [III.i.120]; "nunnery" was often used in Elizabethan slang to mean a house of prostitution.) Unconvinced that love is at the root of Hamlet's disturbing conduct, Claudius decides to send him to England. In the meantime, doubting whether the ghost is truly his father's spirit and can thus be trusted, Hamlet arranges for a troupe of traveling actors to perform a play that closely resembles the circumstances of the murder as recount ed by the ghost. Claudius's perturbed reaction to the performance convinces Hamlet that the ghost's allegations are true. During a meeting with his mother during which he violently denounces her relationship with his uncle, Hamlet fatally stabs Polonius, who has been eavesdropping behind a curtain; apparently, the prince has mistaken him for Claudius. (When Gertrude asks Hamlet what he has done, he replies "Nay, I know not, is it the King?" [III.iv.26].) After telling Gertrude his belief that Claudius killed his father, Hamlet is interrupted by the ghost who is invisible to Gertrude and who reminds Hamlet of the need for revenge. Alarmed by Hamlet's behavior, Claudius sends him off to England immediately, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, ostensibly on a diplomatic mission but in reality with the intention of having him killed there. Hamlet manages to escape this plot and returns to Denmark. He finds that Ophelia has gone mad and drowned, an apparent suicide. Claudius convinces Ophelia's brother, Laertes, that Hamlet is responsible for the deaths of both his father and his sister. Learning that Hamlet has returned to Denmark, Claudius persuades Laertes to take revenge against Hamlet by means of a plot which is a bit more sly than anything Laertes conceived of. (Laertes's vengeance, we learn from his answer to Claudius's question about what Laertes would do to avenge his father, would take the form of slitting Hamlet's throat in a church [IV.vii. 125-26]). Claudius's plan involves Laertes killing Hamlet during a fencing match in which Laertes will use a rapier that has been tainted with poison. To make doubly sure of Hamlet's death, Claudius prepares a goblet of poisoned wine, which he plans to offer to Hamlet if the prince appears to be winning. During the match, both Hamlet and Laertes are wounded with the poisoned sword, and the queen drinks from the cup intended for Hamlet. As the queen dies, she Hamlet warns Hamlet that the wine is poisoned: Laertes then reveals the plot against Hamlet, and Hamlet finally takes his revenge, first stabbing Claudius, then forcing him to drink from the poisoned cup. Hamlet and Laertes exchange forgiveness before both die. Hamlet is one of the most controversial and most widely discussed characters in English literature. Scores of critics have debated the reasons for his actions, the playwright's view of his character, and the meaning of his tragedy. The primary focus of the debate has been the reason for Hamlet's long delay in carrying out his vow of revenge. An early view which survived into the twentieth century was that Hamlet was a man paralyzed by his own intelligence and introverted nature. A psychoanalytical approach that became popular in the mid-twentieth century suggested that in creating the character of Hamlet Shakespeare anticipated by some three hundred years Sigmund Freud's concept of the Oedipus complex. In this view, Hamlet has never recovered from his natural childhood jealousy of his father. In support of this position, critics point to the prince's obsession with his mother's sexual relationship with Claudius, which has plunged him into depression even before he learns of his father's murder and which throughout the play distracts him from his task of taking revenge against his uncle. By in effect carrying out Hamlet's repressed childhood wish to kill his father and to possess his mother, the argument goes, Claudius revives Hamlet's repressed memories of forbidden childhood thoughts, thereby combining the thoughts of incest and parricide, a combination so unbearable that Hamlet finds himself incapable of taking action. Horatio is Hamlet's closest friend, a former fellow-student at Wittenberg. Horatio has come to Elsinore from Wittenberg for the funeral of old King Hamlet. He is described by Marcellus as a "scholar" (I.i.42). Horatio enjoys the absolute trust of those who know him: it is Horatio whom the guards ask to witness the appearance of the ghost, it is Horatio with whom Hamlet trusts his suspicions regarding Claudius, and even Claudius trusts Horatio to look after and further restrain Hamlet after Hamlet attacks Laertes at Ophelia's funeral. In III.ii.54-87 Hamlet professes his faith in Horatio and praises his qualities of judiciousness, patience, and equanimity. Horatio is initially skeptical about the ghost. He believes it is a "fantasy" (I.i.23) of the watch. After seeing and attempting to communicate with the ghost, Horatio speculates that its appearance might be related to possible impending war with Norway. In speaking to the ghost, Horatio implores it to tell him if he can do anything to help it, or to avoid trouble befalling his country. Noting that the ghost looks like the dead King Hamlet and seemed about to speak when it vanished with the dawn, Horatio resolves to tell Hamlet about the apparition. Horatio worries that the ghost may lead Hamlet to suicide or madness, so he and Marcellus try unsuccessfully to prevent Hamlet from meeting with the ghost. After Hamlet's private conference with the ghost, Horatio tells Hamlet that he is speaking in "wild and whirling words" (I.v.132- 33), and even jokes grimly that some of what Hamlet claims the ghost has told him is common knowledge: "There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave / To tell us this" (I.v.125). Hamlet does not reveal the true substance of the ghost's claims— that he is the ghost of Hamlet's father, murdered by Claudius—to Horatio until later in the play. Hamlet asks Horatio to watch King Claudius during the staging of a play that will recreate a similar murder in order to judge, by the king's responses, whether he seems guilty. He and Hamlet compare notes on the king's behavior afterwards. Horatio is one of the few fixed points in the play: he remains from first to last a loyal friend to Hamlet, trusted by all. He attempts suicide when Hamlet is dying, but Hamlet asks him to remain alive to give a full account of the tragic events at the Danish court. See Claudius Ladies are present at court scenes. Ophelia wistfully bids ladies good night after her mad appearance just before Laertes's arrival at court at the head of a mob. Laertes is Polonius's son and Ophelia's brother. He has come to Denmark for King Claudius's coronation. In his first appearance in I.ii, he seeks permission to return to France. When he appears again in I.iii, Laertes bids his sister Ophelia farewell and warns her about Hamlet. He advises her that Hamlet can't choose a mate for himself alone, but, being the prince, must think of the state. Thus, he cautions Ophelia to protect her virtue. Polonius then enters and advises his son on how to conduct himself while in France. When his father is finished, Laertes leaves for France. Laertes returns to Denmark after Polonius's death, bursting into the room with a group of followers and addressing Claudius, "O thou vile king" (IV.v.116), and vowing revenge for his father's death. Claudius assures Laertes that he played no role in the death of Polonius and asks him if he is prepared to know the truth, if in his desire for vengeance he will look to both "friend and foe" (Iv.v.143). Ophelia then enters, and Laertes realizes that his sister has gone mad. The king then tells Laertes that he will give up the kingdom, his crown and his life if Laertes and his followers find that he was involved in Polonius's death. Later, Claudius explains to Laertes that there was no formal inquiry into Polonius's death due to the queen's love for Hamlet and due to the high regard the people have for the prince. During this scene (IV.vii) a messenger arrives bearing a letter from Hamlet; Laertes and Claudius learn that the prince has returned to Denmark. The king speaks of a plot to kill Hamlet, and Laertes expresses his wish to be a part of it. When Claudius asks Laertes "What would you undertake / To show yourself indeed your father's son / More than in words?" Laertes replies that he would cut Hamlet's throat in the church (IV.vii. 124-26). After further discussion, a plan evolves in which Laertes will fight Hamlet with a poisoned rapier, and, as an additional measure, Claudius will offer a cup of poisoned wine to Hamlet, if it appears as though Hamlet might be winning the match. After Ophelia's funeral, during which Laertes and Hamlet leap into Ophelia's grave, Laertes and Hamlet prepare to duel. In the course of the duel, just before Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned rapier, Laertes says in an aside "And yet it is almost against my conscience" (V.ii.296). After a scuffle the two change rapiers. Laertes is then wounded with the poisoned rapier by Hamlet. At the same moment, the queen, who has drunk from the cup of poisoned wine, falls and warns Hamlet that the drink is poisoned. Laertes then tells Hamlet the truth about the king's layered plots. He asks Hamlet for forgiveness and in turn forgives Hamlet for his own and his father's death. An unnamed lord comes as a messenger to Hamlet from the king, announcing that the court is ready for the fencing display. Lords attend the play, the fencing match, and other public occasions in the court. Marcellus is one of the night watch at Elsinore. He has seen the ghost two times before the opening of the play and asks Horatio to witness the third appearance. A messenger brings letters from Hamlet to the king. The messenger is also dismissed from the presence of the king. He leads forces for Fortinbras in their passage through Denmark to Poland and identifies the Norwegian army to Hamlet. He also expresses his view that the land to be fought over is worthless. Officers enter before the royal party with cushions, foils, and daggers for the fencing scene. Ophelia is the sister of Laertes and the daughter of the king's councillor, Polonius. As I.iii opens, Ophelia has apparently confided to her brother that Prince Hamlet has declared his love for her. Laertes, who is saying goodbye to his sister as he leaves for France, warns Ophelia not to take Hamlet's professions of love seriously. Pointing out that the weddings of princes are usually arranged for reasons of state rather than for love, he cautions her to guard her virginity. Ophelia promises to take his words to heart but also urges her brother to follow his own advice and to avoid "the primrose path of dalliance" (I.iii.50). Polonius enters and adds his warnings to those of Laertes. He orders Ophelia not to spend time with Hamlet or even to talk to him. Ophelia promises to obey. Ophelia next appears in II.i, when she tells Polonius that Hamlet has frightened her by entering her room and behaving in a bizarre manner. Convinced that Ophelia's refusal to speak to Hamlet has caused the prince to lose his mind, Polonius hurries to Claudius and Gertrude, who have also noted Hamlet's odd behavior and are in the process of instructing Hamlet's old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out the reason for it. Polonius and Claudius arrange to spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia so that they can determine if love for Ophelia is really the cause of his apparent madness. This meeting occurs in III.i, and follows Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy. Ophelia greets Hamlet and tries to return his gifts to her. Hamlet denies having given her anything and subjects her to several vehement and disjointed statements commenting on the falseness of women and questioning the nature of marriage. Hamlet tells Ophelia that he "did love [her] once" (III.i.114). To her response, "Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so," (III.i.115) he answers: "You should not have believ'd me" (III.i.116). Because Hamlet repeatedly charges Ophelia to "Get thee to a nunnery," (III.i.120) with the possible double meaning of "brothel," this scene is often referred to as the "nunnery scene." Although Polonius continues to believe that unrequited love has caused Hamlet's madness, Claudius is not convinced, and resolves to send Hamlet to England. During the play '"The Mousetrap," Hamlet sits next to Ophelia and responds to her attempts at conversation with angry and sexually suggestive remarks. When Ophelia next appears, in IV.v, Hamlet has killed her father and has himself been sent away to England, and Ophelia has gone mad. She comes before the king and queen singing snatches of songs about death, love, and sexual betrayal. She exits briefly, then returns after the arrival of Laertes and distributes various herbs and wildflowers with symbolic meanings. Two scenes later, Gertrude interrupts a meeting between Claudius and Laertes with the news that Ophelia has drowned, an apparent suicide. Blaming Hamlet for the deaths of both his father and his sister, Laertes plots with Claudius to obtain revenge by killing Hamlet. At the beginning of Act V, two gravediggers discuss the appropriateness of Ophelia being given "Christian burial" even though her death is believed to have been suicide. Hamlet, who has escaped his uncle's plot to have him killed in England and has returned unexpectedly to Denmark, enters with Horatio. Unaware of Ophelia's death, he engages a gravedigger and Horatio in a discussion of mortality. As the funeral procession approaches, Hamlet and Horatio hide. When Laertes shows his grief by leaping into the grave, Hamlet, realizing that the funeral is Ophelia's, follows suit, claiming that his own love for Ophelia was far greater than Laertes's. The two men grapple and have to be separated by the other mourners. Ophelia is sometimes seen as an excessively weak character; first, because she obeys her father so unquestioningly, even to the point of helping him to spy on Hamlet, and second, because she loses her mind. Many critics, however, have defended both Shakespeare's choice of making Ophelia the character that she is, and Ophelia's behavior within the play. Osric is a courtier, described by Hamlet as being of little significance himself, but important insofar as he owns extensive lands. He delivers the king's challenge of a fencing match between Ham let and Laertes to Hamlet and Horatio (V.ii), speaking effusively in an affected manner which Hamlet mocks and parodies back to him. Even Horatio makes mild fun at Orsic's expense, after Hamlet's own rhetorical flourishes leave him befuddled. of being close-mouthed and discreet. In Hi Polonius instructs his servant Reynaldo to spy on Laertes in France and report on his conduct. Ophelia enters, describing Hamlet's strange behavior. This causes Polonius to question whether Hamlet is "mad for thy [Ophelia's] love" (II.i.82). Polonius discusses Hamlet's bizarre behavior concerning Ophelia with Claudius, stating bluntly "Your noble son is mad" (II.ii.92). Polonius then arranges for himself and Claudius to secretly observe an encounter between Hamlet and Ophelia to prove Hamlet's insanity to the king. Polonius dies in III.iv. He hides behind an arras following a brief conversation with Gertrude. From his hiding place, he overhears Hamlet's confrontation with Gertrude, during the course of which Gertrude asks Hamlet if he is going to murder her. When the queen cries out, Polonius, still behind the curtain, calls out for help. Hamlet then stabs him through the curtain and kills him, apparently thinking he was Claudius. See Hamlet See Gertrude Reynaldo is a servant whom Polonius instructs to go to Paris in order to observe and report on Laertes's conduct. A troupe of traveling actors already known to Hamlet. They arrive at Elsinore to perform for the Danish court, and Hamlet employs them to enact a play that mirrors the circumstances of his father's murder. Polonius, Laertes's and Ophelia's father, is an elderly and long-winded courtier and chief counselor in the Danish court. Polonius demonstrates a propensity for hypocrisy and spying: his first major speech (I.iii), to his departing son Laertes, is a lengthy diatribe on, among other things, the virtue Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are friends from Hamlet's youth sent for by the king and queen to learn the cause of Hamlet's change of personality. The two are perfectly willing to supply covert intelligence to the king. While both profess to be concerned about Hamlet's welfare, because it is bound up with the welfare of the Danish state, they are commonly considered by commentators on the play as opportunists who are currying royal favor with Claudius solely to remain in the good graces of the current power structure. Their exchanges with Hamlet generally reveal that he is suspicious of them, mistrustful of their purpose in court, and too wary to reveal anything about himself to them. With Guildenstern, Rosencrantz is unknowingly sent to his death in England by Hamlet's discovery of Claudius's plot and Hamlet's quick construction of a counter-plot. The sailors are from the pirate ship that intercepts the ship conveying Hamlet, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern to England. They carry letters from Hamlet to Horatio and the king, ransoming Hamlet back to Denmark. Fortinbras's Norwegian troops, marching dutifully to the fight. Hamlet says they "go to their graves like beds ..." (IV.iv.62), and seems to regret his own lack of resolute action. Voltemand and Cornelius are Danish ambassadors, sent by King Claudius in I.ii.26-38, to the king of Norway, the uncle of young Fortinbras, to urge him to squelch his nephew's threats against Danish land. They return in II.ii.40 to report that their mission was successful.
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