| A | B |
|---|
| Barnardo, Francisco, Marcellus | sentinels; officers in King of Denmark’s army |
| Horatio | Prince Hamlet’s friend and confidante; fellow student at Wittenberg |
| Ghost | of dead King of Denmark, Prince Hamlet’s father; brother of new King, husband of Gertrude |
| Claudius | brother of dead King of Denmark; now King, and new husband of Queen Gertrude, Prince Hamlet’s mother |
| Gertrude | Prince Hamlet’s mother, widow of former King, now wife to Claudius, new King |
| Polonius | King Claudius’s advisor; father to Laertes and Ophelia |
| Reynaldo | Polonius’s servant, sent to Paris to spy on Laertes |
| Laertes | son to Polonius, brother to Ophelia; friend to Hamlet |
| Prince Hamlet | son of the late King, and of Queen Gertrude; nephew-stepson to King Claudius |
| Voltemand and Cornelius | messengers to King of Norway from Claudius |
| Ophelia | daughter to Polonius, sister to Laertes, beloved of Hamlet |
| Rosencrantz and Guildenstern | fellow students of Hamlet at Wittenberg; sent with Hamlet to England by Claudius to murder Hamlet |
| Osric | messenger who summons Hamlet to duel with Laertes |
| The Players | actors (adults) who formerly performed in the city, and who are now traveling because of the rising popularity of companies of child actors |
| Grave diggers | two clowns (rustics) who are disinterring an old grave in order to make way for a new burial, Ophelia |
| Priest | Doctor of Divinity (church official) presiding at Ophelia’s funeral |
| Fortinbras | Prince of Norway whose father was killed by Hamlet’s father; assumes throne of Denmark at play’s end |
| Ambassador | from England, reporting to Claudius |
| Denmark | the country where the story of Hamlet takes place |
| Elsinore Castle | The setting of William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet |
| Wittenburg | where Hamlet and Horatio went to school |
| England | the place where Hamlet was supposed to be murdered but where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are murdered |
| Norway | a place of earlier conflict; Fortinbras is now Prince |
