'I have that within me which passes show/ these but the trappings and the suits of woe' (Hamlet, 1:2)

Hamlet believes he is the only one really upset by his Father’s death.

'Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me!/ You would play upon me! You would seem to know my stops…/ Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?' (Hamlet, 3:2)

Hamlet realises he is being manipulated and lied to and sees through others’ schemes.

'He knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger. He is far gone, far gone' (Polonius, 2:2)

Hamlet speaks strangely and confuses people, making them think he is mad.

'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet/ To give these mourning duties to your Father/ …But to persever in obstinate condolement is a course of impious stubborness, ‘tis unmanly grief' (Claudius, 1:2)

Hamlet is really upset about his Father’s death and Claudius tells him it is ‘unmanly’.

'Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!/ The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword/ Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state,/ The glass of fashion and the mould of form/ Th’observed of all observers, quite, quite down!' (Ophelia, 3:1)

Hamlet used to have the grace of a gentleman, the wit of a scholar and a soldier’s strength.

'And I, of ladies most deject and wretched / That sucked the honey of his music vows /…O, woe is me / T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see!' (Ophelia, 3:1)

Ophelia believed the sweet promises Hamlet made to her and is devastated to see him change during the play.

'I must tell you / You do not understand yourself so clearly / As it behoves my daughter and your honour' (Polonius, 1:3)

Ophelia has spent a lot of time with Hamlet but her Father thinks she should behave with more honour.

'I have heard of your paintings too, well enough / God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another / You jig and amble, and you lisp…and make your Wantoness your ignorance' (Hamlet, 3:1)

Hamlet is deliberately cruel to Ophelia when he accuses her of wearing too much make up and enticing men.

'Fear it, Ophelia, fear it my dear sister, / And keep you in the rear of your affection' (Laertes, 1:3)

Ophelia trusts Hamlet.

‘I am still possessed / Of those affects for which I did the murder, / My crown, mine own ambition and my Queen.’ (Claudius, 3:3)

Claudius is ambitious.

‘think of us / As of a father’ (Claudius, 1:2)

Claudius wants Hamlet to see him as a father.

‘Try what repentance can – what can it not? – yet what it can, when one cannot repent?’ (Claudius, 3:1)

Claudius does not feel guilty enough for murdering his brother to repent.

'young Fortinbras, / Holding a weak supposal of our worth / Or thinking by our late dear brother’s death / Our state to be disjoint and out of frame –’ (Claudius, 1:2)

Claudius wants to prove himself as king, trying to deal with Fortinbras and prove the state is not weak.

‘Thus was I sleeping by a brother’s hand / Of life, of crown, of queen at one dispatched.’ (Old Hamlet, 1:5)

Claudius murdered his brother, something he later admits to himself when talking to God.

'My most seeming-virtuous queen / O Hamlet, what a falling off was there / From me, whose love was of that dignity / That it went hand in hand even with the vow / I made to her in marriage; and to decline / Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor to those of mine!' (Old Hamlet, 1:5)

Gertrude was a virtuous and good queen but the ghost of her dead husband criticises her choice to remarry Claudius.

‘Frailty, thy name is Woman’ (Hamlet, 1:2)

Gertrude is seen as fickle by her son, who thinks she is weak.

'Beauteous majesty of Denmark' (Ophelia, 4:5)

Gertrude is a beautiful Queen, according to Ophelia.

'I am thy Father’s Spirit / Doomed for a certain term to walk the night / And for the day confined to fast in fires / Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature / Are burnt and purged away' (Old Hamlet, 1:5)

Old Hamlet is in limbo until his murder is avenged, walking during the night and burning in fires during the day.

'So excellent a King, that was to this / Hyperion to a Satyr; so loving to my Mother' (Hamlet, 1:2)

Old Hamlet was a good king and loved Gertrude. Hamlet compares him to Claudius saying he was a far superior king.

'I saw him once. He was a goodly King' (Horatio, 1:2)

Old Hamlet was a respected monarch.

'Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned…thou comest in such a questionable shape that I will speak to thee' (Hamlet, 1:4)

Old Hamlet appears as a ghost and Hamlet is not sure whether to trust him at first.

'I hold my duty as I hold my soul / Both to my God and to my gracious King' (Polonius, 2:2)

Polonius believes his main duties are to serve God and King Claudius.

'These tedious old fools' (Hamlet, 2:2)

Polonius is of the older generation and is seen as boring by Hamlet.

'They say an old man is twice a child' (Rosencrantz, 2:2)

Polonius behaves like an old man and it makes him more silly than a child.

'I loved your Father' (Claudius, 4:7)

Polonius was a close ally and friend of Claudius.

‘Perhaps he loves you now, / And now no soil or cautel doth besmirch / The virtue of his will; but you must fear, / His greatness weighed. His will is not his own.’ (Laertes, 1:3)

Laertes does not trust Hamlet and cares about Ophelia being hurt.

‘...willingly I came to Denmark / To show my duty in your coronation’ (Laertes, 1:2)

Laertes is dutiful and came back to Denmark for Claudius’ coronation.

‘They cry ‘Choose we: Laertes shall be king!’ - / Caps, hands and tongue, applaud it to the clouds’ (Messenger, 4:5)

Laertes is loved by the people and is a rival for the crown.

‘What is the cause, Laertes, / That thou rebellion looks so giant-like?’ (Claudius, 4:5)

Laertes is a potential threat to Claudius and can have a quick temper.

'I am more an antique Roman than a Dane' (Horatio, 5:2)

Horatio is fiercely loyal to Hamlet and tries to take poison himself when Hamlet is dying, preferring to die by his side like a loyal Roman than a Dane like Claudius or Gertrude.

'Sir, my good friend' (Hamlet, 1:2)

Horatio is Hamlet’s closest friend.

'You are friends, scholars, soldiers' (Hamlet, 1:5)

Horatio is an intellectual with an education and experience as a soldier in Denmark.

'He that thou knowest thine' (Hamlet, 4:6)

Horatio knows Hamlet better than anyone else in the play and is trusted by him.

When Hamlet first sees them, Hamlet asks how they are. Guildenstern replies, 'Happy in that we are not over-happy/ On fortune’s cap we are not the very button' (Guildenstern, 2:2)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern claim to be content, rather than having extreme emotions like Hamlet.

'My excellent good friends' (Hamlet, 2:2)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been good friends with Hamlet since childhood.

Hamlet describes them as 'Sponges' that 'soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities' (Hamlet, 4:2)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will do whatever Claudius and Gertrude ask in order to try and get favour.

'For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune/I have some rights of memory in this Kingdom/ Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me' (Fortinbras, 5:2)

Fortinbras is opportunistic, realising that all the possible heirs to the throne are gone and he is free to seize Denmark.

'Young Fortinbras/ Holding a weak supposal of our worth/ or thinking by our late dear brother’s death/ Our state to be disjoint and out of frame' (Claudius, 1:2)

Fortinbras believes the State of Denmark is vulnerable because it has just lost its King.

'Witness this army of such mass and charge / Led by a delicate and tender Prince / Whose spirit, with divine ambition puffed / Makes mouths at the invisible event / Exposing what is mortal and unsure / To all that fortune, death, and danger dare / Even for an eggshell' (Hamlet, 4:4)

Fortinbras is ambitious and leads a huge army.