of the play, he murdered Hamlet's father in order to obtain the throne, then promptly married Hamlet's mother, the widowed Queen Gertrude. Claudius is a robust, scheming man driven by his appetites and a lust for power, but he occasionally shows signs of guilt and human feeling--his love for Gertrude, for instance, seems entirely sincere.
             Gertrude - The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet's mother. At the beginning of the play, shortly after the death of her husband (Hamlet's father), Gertrude has married Claudius, the new king and her dead husband's brother. Gertrude loves Hamlet deeply, but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and status more urgently than moral truth. She refuses to listen to Hamlet when he attempts to persuade her of Claudius's wrongdoing, instead persisting in her belief that her son has gone mad.
             Polonius - The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius's court, a pompous, conniving old man. Polonius is the father of Laertes and Ophelia; Hamlet accidentally kills him as he hides behind a
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