Prince of Denmark, son of the late King Hamlet and Queen 

Gertrude, and nephew and stepson

to Claudius. Hamlet is one of the most famous figures in Western literature, and, in the world of
the theater, one of the most complicated, difficult, and yet sought-after roles ever created.
Hamlet’s existentialism, immaturity, and layered, constructed personality make him an odd
leading man—a protagonist in a revenge play that is less about the revenge itself and more
about tearing down notions of whether vengeance is ever justified (or ever enough). Hamlet, a
university student, delivers several long monologues and soliloquies throughout the play which
plunge the depths of his psyche—or at least seem to—as he tries to figure out the difference
between what society has led him to believe and what his own core beliefs truly are. For
instance, though Hamlet’s father’s ghost charges him with securing vengeance for Claudius’s
brutal act of regicide, Hamlet isn’t sure whether there is truly any honor in revenge—and his
inability to decide one way or the other results in his halting, hobbling inaction, his endless
musings on the nature of life and death, and his festering inability to tell the difference between
what is real and what is perceived. Shakespeare uses Hamlet to explore the nihilism that takes
over once one begins to see life and death as arbitrary and meaningless, and to imagine what
cruelties, betrayals, and charades one might resort to as a result of that nihilism. Hamlet’s
despicable treatment of his lover Ophelia and his mother Gertrude, his slaying of Polonius, and
his public humiliation of Claudius are all consequences of his inability to act simply and
decisively—and yet with every day that Hamlet refuses to take action, kill his murderous
stepfather, and claim the throne for himself, the “rotten” core of Denmark grows more and more
unstable, and vulnerable to foreign interference. Anxious, poetic, brooding, and yet oftentimes
rebellious and playful, Hamlet’s contradictory personality, convoluted speeches, and tragic fate
make him one of Shakespeare’s best-known characters, and one of theater’s greatest enigmas
of all time.