A prince sees his father's ghost, feigns madness, and burns a court to ash.
Who drives the story
Prince of Denmark, a grieving scholar in black who wants proof before revenge and time after he has it. His feigned madness becomes real cruelty, and his delay costs Ophelia, Polonius, Gertrude, and finally himself.
The brother who poured poison in a sleeping king's ear, then took crown and queen. He prays, plots, and schemes his way through the play until the poisoned rapier and cup he prepared end in his own mouth.
The queen who married her husband's killer within weeks, whether from weakness, desire, or ignorance. She drinks the poisoned cup meant for her son and dies naming the drink.
Polonius's daughter, ordered to avoid Hamlet, then used as bait, then rejected cruelly. Her father's death and Hamlet's nunnery tirade break her; she drowns among the flowers she scattered.
The Lord Chamberlain, a windbag spy who sends Reynaldo after his own son and hides behind arrases. He dies stabbed through the tapestry, mistaken for a king.
Polonius's son, quick to raise a mob and quicker to accept a poisoned rapier. His need for revenge makes him Claudius's weapon, and the plot turns on him as he dies confessing it.
Hamlet's school friend, the one man 'not passion's slave,' who sees the Ghost first and survives last. Hamlet's dying request: stay and tell the story right.
The armored dead king, doomed to walk the nights until his sins are purged. He brings the murder charge, the revenge command, and a second visit to whet his son's blunted purpose.
Norway's prince, marching an army across Denmark to fight Poland over a worthless patch of ground. He arrives too late to fight Hamlet and too early to miss the throne.
Hamlet's school friends who agree to spy on him for the king. Hamlet rewrites their commission so they carry their own death warrant to England.
How they are connected
His feigned madness becomes real cruelty, and his delay costs Ophelia, Polonius, Gertrude, and finally himself.
His feigned madness becomes real cruelty, and his delay costs Ophelia, Polonius, Gertrude, and finally himself.
His feigned madness becomes real cruelty, and his delay costs Ophelia, Polonius, Gertrude, and finally himself.
Polonius's daughter, ordered to avoid Hamlet, then used as bait, then rejected cruelly.
Polonius's son, quick to raise a mob and quicker to accept a poisoned rapier.
His need for revenge makes him Claudius's weapon, and the plot turns on him as he dies confessing it.
Hamlet's school friend, the one man 'not passion's slave,' who sees the Ghost first and survives last.
Hamlet's school friend, the one man 'not passion's slave,' who sees the Ghost first and survives last.
He arrives too late to fight Hamlet and too early to miss the throne.
Rosencrantz and GuildensternHamlet
Hamlet's school friends who agree to spy on him for the king.
Go deeper
Action and Delay · Performance and Reality · Death and Decay · Madness, Real and Feigned
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
Open the summary