Marcellus is the most prominent of the three. Marcellus goes with Horatio to tell Hamlet about the Ghost's appearance. Francisco gives up his watch to Bernardo in the opening of the play, and it is Bernardo and Marcellus, who first alert Horatio to the appearance of King Hamlet's Ghost. Marcellus, Bernardo (or Barnardo) and Francisco are sentries at Elsinore. Fortinbras is the crown prince of Norway, and assumes the throne of Denmark after Hamlet's death.Įlsinore sentries Marcellus, Barnardo and Francisco.Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are childhood friends and schoolmates of Hamlet, who were summoned to Elsinore by Claudius and Gertrude.Horatio is a good friend of Hamlet, from the university at Wittenberg, who came to Elsinore Castle to attend King Hamlet's funeral.Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius, and Laertes's sister, who lives with her father at Elsinore.Laertes is the son of Polonius, and has returned to Elsinore from Paris.Polonius ('Corambis' in 'Q1') is Claudius's chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes.

The Ghost appears in the image of Hamlet's father, the late King Hamlet (Old Hamlet).Gertrude is the Queen of Denmark, and King Hamlet's widow, now married to Claudius, and mother to Hamlet.Claudius has married Gertrude, his brother's widow. Claudius is the King of Denmark, elected to the throne after the death of his brother, King Hamlet.Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark he is son to the late King Hamlet, and nephew to the present King Claudius.A detail of the engraving of Daniel Maclise's 1842 painting The Play-scene in Hamlet, portraying the moment when the guilt of Claudius is revealed

About hamlet by william shakespeare