Characters in Hamlet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What follows is an overview of the main characters in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, followed by a list and summary of the minor characters from the play.[1] Three different early versions of the play survive: known as the First Quarto ("Q1"), Second Quarto ("Q2"), and First Folio ("F1"), each has lines—and even scenes—missing in the others, and some character names vary.
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[edit] Overview of main characters
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- See also: Synopsis of Hamlet
- Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark; he is son to the late King Hamlet; and nephew to the present king Claudius.
- Claudius is the King of Denmark, elected to the throne after the death of his brother, King Hamlet. Claudius has married Gertrude, his brother's widow.
- Gertrude is the Queen of Denmark, and King Hamlet's widow, now married to Claudius, and mother to Hamlet.
- The Ghost appears in the image of Hamlet's father, the late King Hamlet (Old Hamlet).
- Polonius ("Corambis" in "Q1") is Claudius's chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes.
- Laertes is the son of Polonius, and has returned to Elsinore from Paris.
- Ophelia is Polonius' daughter, and Laertes' sister, who lives with her father at Elsinore.
- Horatio is a good friend of Hamlet, from the university at Wittenberg, who came to Elsinore Castle to attend King Hamlet's funeral.
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are childhood friends and schoolmates of Hamlet, who were summoned to Elsinore by Claudius and Gertrude.
- Fortinbras is the nephew of old King Norway. He is also the son of Fortinbras senior, who was killed in single combat by Hamlet's father.
[edit] Elsinore sentries
In Hamlet, Elsinore Castle is the royal palace of Denmark. The real Elsinore would have been familiar to Elizabethan England, as a new castle, Kronborg Slot, had recently been built there.
[edit] Barnardo, Francisco and Marcellus
Marcellus, Barnardo and Francisco are sentries at Elsinore. Francisco gives up his watch to Barnardo in the opening lines of the play, and it is Barnardo and Marcellus, who first alert Horatio to the appearance of King Hamlet's Ghost.[2] Marcellus is the most prominent of the three. [3] Alec Guinness is credited with "discovering" the role in the 1937 Tyrone Guthrie production at the Old Vic Theatre, London.[4] The role was played by Anthony Quayle in Olivier's cinema version and by Jack Lemmon in Branagh's.
[edit] Elsinore entourage
[edit] Voltemand and Cornelius
Voltemand and Cornelius are ambassadors sent by the King of Denmark Claudius to old King Norway.[5]
[edit] Reynaldo
He is a servant to Polonius.[6] (In the "Q1" text, Reynaldo is called "Montano" and Polonius is called "Corambis.") Polonius sends Reynaldo to Paris to check up on what Laertes is doing. Gérard Depardieu took the role in Branagh's Hamlet.
[edit] A Gentleman
He informs Gertrude of Ophelia's strange change in behaviour, before Ophelia's first "mad" appearance.[7]
[edit] Osric
He is the courtier sent by Claudius to invite Hamlet to participate in the duel with Laertes.[8] (This character is called "Ostricke" in the Second Quarto.) Osric, as well as Polonius, engages with Hamlet in the elaborate, witty discourse, fully consistent with Baldassare Castiglione's 1528 work, The Courtier. This work outlines several courtly rules, specifically advising royal retainers to amuse their masters with inventive language.[9] He was played by Peter Cushing in Olivier's Hamlet and by Robin Williams in Branagh's Hamlet.
[edit] Messengers
[edit] The Players
The Players are a company of actors who arrive at Elsinore Castle. Friends of Hamlet, they had earlier performed in "the city" (presumably Copenhagen,) but faced stiff competition from boy performers, so they have traveled to Elsinore to offer Hamlet their services. At Elsinore, they perform a version—which Hamlet has modified and called The Mousetrap—of the play The Murder of Gonzago in the "play within a play".
[edit] First Player or Player King
He is the leader of the troupe of touring actors. In the "play within a play", he takes the part of the king who is murdered.[10] In Branagh's Hamlet, Charlton Heston plays the Player King.
[edit] Second Player or Player Queen
This role was traditionally performed by a lad, as were all the female parts in "Hamlet," since women did not appear on stage in Elizabethan times.[11]
[edit] Third Player
He is also called Lucianus in the "play within a play".[12] The name may be a reference to Lucius in the Brutus legend, a source for Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, itself a candidate source for Hamlet.[citation needed]
[edit] Fourth Player
The 'Mousetrap' play-within-a-play has a very brief Prologue recited by one of the Players. The First Player may do the Prologue, but if not, a Fourth Player, with a speaking part, is probably required to do it.
[edit] Ophelia's funeral
[edit] Two Clowns (a sexton gravedigger, and a bailiff)
The bailiff informs the sexton that Ophelia's death was not suicide, but the sexton argues the point. Later, the sexton unearths Yorick's skull, which leads to Hamlet's famous "Alas, poor Yorick" speech. During the Interregnum, all theatres were closed down by the puritan government.[13] However, even during this time playlets known as drolls were often performed illegally, including one based on the two clowns, called The Grave-Makers, based on Act 5, Scene 1 of Hamlet.[14] Stanley Holloway played the role in Olivier's Hamlet and Billy Crystal in Branagh's.
[edit] A Priest, or Doctor of Divinity
He officiates at Orphelia's funeral, and does not give her full Christian burial rites, since the church suspects her death was suicide. Called a "Priest" in the First Folio edition of "Hamlet," his speech prefix in the Second Quarto is "Doct" for Doctor of Divinity, a Protestant clergyman. Thus, the two original "good" printings of the play are in disagreement whether the clergyman is Protestant or Catholic. Michael Bryant played the clergyman in Branagh's Hamlet.[15]
[edit] Other characters
[edit] A Captain
He is a commander in Fortinbras' invading army, and is assigned by Fortinbras to get the license from Claudius for Fortinbras's army to be in Denmark.[16]
[edit] Sailors (pirates)
The sailors are two pirates who deliver a letter from Hamlet to Horatio, informing Horatio that Hamlet has returned to Denmark.
[edit] English Ambassadors
They appear in the final scene to report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.[17] The role was played singly by Richard Attenborough in Branagh's Hamlet.
[edit] Notes and references
All references to Hamlet, unless otherwise specified, are taken from the Arden Shakespeare "Q2" (Thompson and Taylor, 2006a). Under their referencing system, 3.1.55 means act 3, scene 1, line 55. References to the First Quarto and First Folio are marked Hamlet "Q1" and Hamlet "F1", respectively, and are taken from the Arden Shakespeare "Hamlet: the texts of 1603 and 1623" (Thompson and Taylor, 2006b). Their referencing system for "Q1" has no act breaks, so 7.115 means scene 7, line 115.
- ^ Character list collated from Spencer (1980, 61–2) and from Thompson & Taylor (2006a, 140). For Q1 Character names see Thompson & Taylor (2006b, 42)
- ^ Hamlet 1.1 & 1.2
- ^ Hamlet 1.1, 1.2 & 1.4
- ^ Thompson (2006a, 228)
- ^ Hamlet 2.2
- ^ Hamlet 2.1
- ^ Hamlet 4.5
- ^ Hamlet 5.2
- ^ MacCary (1998, 84–85).
- ^ Hamlet 3.2
- ^ Hamlet 3.2
- ^ Hamlet 3.2.26
- ^ Marsden (2002, 21)
- ^ Holland (2007, 34)
- ^ Hamlet 5.1.197 onwards
- ^ Hamlet 4.4
- ^ Hamlet 5.2.236 onwards
- Holland, Peter. 2007. "Shakespeare Abbreviated". In Shaughnessy (2007, 26-45).
- Marsden, Jean I. 2002. "Improving Shakespeare: from the Restoration to Garrick". In Wells and Stanton (2002, 21–36).
- Shaughnessy, Robert. 2007. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture. Cambridge Companions to Literature ser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521605809
- Spencer, T. J. B., ed. 1980 Hamlet. New Penguin Shakespeare ser. London: Penguin. ISBN 0140707344.
- Thompson, Ann and Neil Taylor, eds. 2006a. Hamlet. The Arden Shakespeare, third ser. Volume one. London: Arden. ISBN 1904271332.
- ———. 2006b. Hamlet: The Texts of 1603 and 1623. The Arden Shakespeare, third ser. Volume two. London: Arden. ISBN 1904271804.
[edit] See also
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