hamlet character analsis

Character Analysis Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: The character of Hamlet dominates Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, yet Hamlet at the start of the play is not a commanding figure. Indeed, when we first see the Prince, his posture is defensive, Hamlet taking a passive, if resentful, stance toward the events that have befallen him. Slow to the conviction that the ghost is his dead father and that Claudius is guilty of regicide, Hamlet does …

…a smooth transition from one master to the next, and he abets Claudius's efforts to control Hamlet. Polonius is capable of subterfuge, but he is also a somewhat ridiculous figure, a "doting" father who hands down well-meaning platitudes like "To thine own self be true," to his son. We have the sense that Polonius is a stock comic character misplaced in a bloody tragedy. Ophelia: A completely innocent www.allshakespeare.com/plays/hamlet/ca.shtml