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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.
Hamlet-like legends are so widely found (for example in Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Byzantium, and Arabia) that the core "hero-as-fool" theme is possibly Indo-European in origin. [8] Several ancient written precursors to Hamlet can be identified. The first is the anonymous Scandinavian Saga of Hrolf Kraki.
The majority of characters in Hamlet have classical names, in contrast to the "particularly Danish" ones of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The names were common in the court of Frederick II and Christian IV , and also at the University of Wittenberg , an institution where Hamlet is mentioned as having studied (he refers to them as "my two ...
[265] Commenting on "the character of Hamlet", he in effect joins a discussion among his contemporaries, adding to the mix of similar assessments by Goethe, [266] Schlegel, [267] and Coleridge [268] his observation that Hamlet "is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment." [80]
Hamlet and Ophelia, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. From its premiere at the turn of the 17th century, Hamlet has remained Shakespeare's best-known, most-imitated, and most-analyzed play. The character of Hamlet played a critical role in Sigmund Freud's explanation of the Oedipus complex. [1]
Prince Hamlet is the title character and protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet (1599–1601). He is the Prince of Denmark , nephew to the usurping Claudius , and son of King Hamlet , the previous King of Denmark .
"To be, or not to be" is a speech given by Prince Hamlet in the so-called "nunnery scene" of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1). The speech is named for the opening phrase, itself among the most widely known and quoted lines in modern English literature, and has been referenced in many works of theatre, literature and music.
The characters in Act 5 scene 1 approach the topic this time with dark comedy, and in doing so bring up an entirely different theme. The parody of legal jargon used by the pair of clowns continues the theme of the corruption of politics, as seen in the usurpation of the throne by Claudius (which should have belonged to prince Hamlet) upon King ...