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  • Stories
  • Play
  • Shakespeare, about 1600

Hamlet family tree

This Hamlet family tree sets out the three families of the play by Shakespeare. The royal house of Denmark, the household of Polonius and the two kings of Norway are drawn as one story chart that changes act by act.

The Hamlet family tree as a story chart

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The Hamlet family tree as a story chart, with King Hamlet, Gertrude and Claudius at the top, Hamlet below them, the family of Polonius to one side and the kings of Norway to the other.

Select a person on the chart, and the row about them opens from here.

The chart opens before the play begins. Move Story position under the chart to read the court as it stands at the end of each act, from the murder of the old King to the arrival of Fortinbras.

The royal house of Denmark in Hamlet, drawn by the editor as a story chart. A cross marks a death.

Families
3
Characters on the chart
12
Story points
6
Deaths in the play
8
Family I

The royal house of Denmark

The Hamlet family tree begins with a death. King Hamlet has died before the play opens, and his brother Claudius has taken both the crown and the widowed queen, Gertrude.2 Claudius calls her “our sometime sister, now our queen”, so on the chart one woman stands in two marriages.2

Prince Hamlet is the only child of the first marriage. He has come home from Wittenberg, and Claudius asks him to stay at court.2 The Ghost then tells him in Act I that Claudius poured poison in his ear as he slept in the orchard.4 The Hamlet family tree shows that murder only from the point at which the prince learns it.

The play treats the crown of Denmark as a matter of election. Claudius names Hamlet “the most immediate to our throne”, the next in line after himself.2 In Act V Hamlet says that Claudius “popped in between th’ election and my hopes”, and Fortinbras, taking the crown, claims “some rights of memory in this kingdom”.9

The house of Denmark, after Fuseli, Abbey and Delacroix.
Family II

Polonius, Laertes and Ophelia

Polonius is the King’s chief counsellor and the father of two children. His son Laertes asks leave in the second scene to go back to France, and before he sails he warns his sister Ophelia against the prince’s love.23 Polonius then orders her to stop seeing Hamlet.3

No mother is named, and none appears on the Hamlet family tree. The play destroys the household in order. Hamlet kills Polonius behind the hanging in the Queen’s room in Act III, Ophelia drowns in Act IV, and Laertes dies of his own poisoned blade in Act V.689

The Play Scene in Hamlet by Edwin Austin Abbey. The court sits in a dark hall watching the players, with Hamlet lying at Ophelia’s feet and the King and Queen on a raised seat behind.
The play scene of Act III, in which Hamlet watches the King while the players act a murder in a garden. Edwin Austin Abbey, 1897. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Family III

The kings of Norway beside the Hamlet family tree

Norway frames the whole Hamlet family tree. Horatio explains in the first scene that King Hamlet killed old Fortinbras of Norway in single combat and won his lands, and that young Fortinbras has gathered men to take them back.1

The throne of Norway has passed, as Denmark’s has, to the dead king’s brother. Claudius asks this uncle to stop Fortinbras, and in Act II the uncle turns him against Poland.25 Fortinbras crosses Denmark with his army in Act IV and arrives at the end to claim the Danish crown.79

The play

The Hamlet family tree act by act

Each card gives the changes at the end of an act. The cards name deaths, so read each one after its act.

  1. Act I

    The Ghost names its murderer

    Spoiler note. The murder of King Hamlet is revealed.

    • Claudius is king and married to Gertrude.
    • The Ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius killed him, and the serpent on the chart becomes Claudius.

    Sources24

  2. Act II

    The court sets its spies

    Spoiler note. Two friends change sides.

    • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, sent for by the King to watch Hamlet.
    • Polonius decides that love for Ophelia has made the prince mad.

    Sources5

  3. Act III

    The play and the first death

    Spoiler note. Polonius dies.

    • The play within the play shows Claudius to be guilty.
    • Hamlet kills Polonius behind the hanging in the Queen’s room.

    Sources6

  4. Act IV

    Exile, madness and revenge

    Spoiler note. Ophelia dies.

    • Hamlet is sent to England and Fortinbras marches across Denmark.
    • Ophelia drowns, and Laertes joins Claudius in a plot against Hamlet.

    Sources78

  5. Act V

    The court dies together

    Spoiler note. The ending is told in full.

    • Gertrude drinks the poisoned cup, and Laertes and Hamlet are cut with the poisoned blade.
    • Hamlet kills Claudius, dies, and leaves his voice to Fortinbras.

    Sources9

How to read it

How to read this Hamlet family tree

A square is a man and a circle is a woman. A double line is a marriage. On this Hamlet family tree Gertrude has a marriage line to each king, with Hamlet under the first.

The coloured lines are emotional lines. The line from Hamlet to Claudius turns from distrust to hatred once the Ghost has spoken, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern move from Hamlet’s friends to the King’s party.

To build a Hamlet family tree of your own, open this chart in the editor or start from the story charts. The notation is set out in the genogram symbols.

The characters

Everyone on the Hamlet family tree

The people on the chart, in the order of its rows.
PortraitPersonIn the storyLifeOn the chart
Portrait of King HamletKing HamletThe murdered kingDies before Act IMurdered by his brother, he returns as the Ghost.

Sources4

Portrait of GertrudeGertrudeQueen of DenmarkDies in Act VShe drinks the cup poisoned for her son.

Sources29

Portrait of ClaudiusClaudiusKing of DenmarkDies in Act VHe murders his brother and is killed by Hamlet.

Sources49

Portrait of HamletHamletPrince of DenmarkDies in Act VHe feigns madness and dies of the poisoned blade.

Sources29

PPoloniusLord chamberlainDies in Act IIIHe is killed while he hides and listens.

Sources36

Portrait of LaertesLaertesSon of PoloniusDies in Act VHe dies by his own poisoned blade.

Sources89

Portrait of OpheliaOpheliaDaughter of PoloniusDies in Act IVShe loses her mind after her father’s death and drowns.

Sources38

OFOld FortinbrasKing of NorwayDies before Act IKilled in single combat by King Hamlet.

Sources1

FFortinbrasPrince of NorwayActs I to VHe ends the play as king of Denmark.

Sources19

HHoratioFriend of HamletActs I to VHe survives to tell the story.

Sources29

RRosencrantzFriend sent for by the KingDies in Act VHe is put to death in England in Hamlet’s place.

Sources59

GGuildensternFriend sent for by the KingDies in Act VHe shares the fate of Rosencrantz.

Sources59

Asked often

Questions about the Hamlet family tree

Who is in the Hamlet family tree

The royal house of Denmark, Polonius with Laertes and Ophelia, and the two Fortinbras of Norway.

How is Claudius related to Hamlet

Claudius is Hamlet’s uncle, the brother of his father, and by marrying Gertrude he becomes his stepfather too. Hamlet calls them his “uncle-father and aunt-mother”.5

Who survives at the end of Hamlet

Horatio and Fortinbras. Both families are dead by the last scene.9

Reference

People and sources

A page of its own lists the ten numbered sources this article cites. It also gives the credits of the pictures and this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.

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