Famous Shakespeare Characters

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The Bard is known as the quintessential wordsmith creating plays in a variety of genres: histories, tragedies and comedies as well as sonnets. Though every schoolboy in England may have a moment where their heart sinks at hearing his name, later reading tends to renew an appreciation for his work. Whether we are drawn to the stories or the characters, it cannot be denied that he is benchmark of good writing. Here is a selection of some of his best-known characters for the uninitiated.

  1. The Ghost (Hamlet)

The Ghost (Hamlet)
The Ghost (Hamlet)

The portentous figure of this tragedy set in Denmark torments the titular character (Hamlet) right through the play. Though he is never named, he is revealed to be the late father of Hamlet and makes just four appearances and always at night. In one of the appearances, Hamlet re-enacts the circumstances of his father’s death in order to trick the ghost into revealing its true demonic nature. The appearances lead others to think that Hamlet is losing his mind.

  1. Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)

Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)
Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)

If it is the passion between Hero and Claudio that would appeal to a modern audience as a typical tale of romance, it is the growing love between Bendick and Beatrice that will appeal to the fans of modern comedy. The ‘merry war’ that exists between them is one of mutual disdain of romance, sarcasm and jokes directed at each other. Whereas the former is the idealised romance, this is the unusual modern romance where two people wake up one day and realise they are in meant to be together.

  1. Iago (Othello)

Othello and Iago
Othello and Iago

Without doubt one of the most vindictive and spiteful of villains in all of Shakespeare’s work. Despite not being the titular character he has the most stage time and far more lines than Othello. He is the quintessential manipulator, personally responsible for all of the tragedy in the play with his lies and he does it by playing on the weaknesses of those around him who see him as a confidante; each of his victims in turn champions his apparent honesty.

  1. Miranda (The Tempest)

Miranda (The Tempest)
Miranda (The Tempest)

In a play very short on women, she is the only one that appears on stage (two more are mentioned in the text but do not appear). She is the daughter of Prospero and one of three characters trapped on the island (along with Caliban). Despite being fully aware of her father’s powers in creating the storm, she begs him to be lenient. After interceding on their behalf it is revealed that she is the Princess of Milan and she falls in love with one of the shipwrecked men ‘ Ferdinand.

  1. Lord Biron (Love’s Labour’s Lost)

Lord Biron (Love's Labour's Lost)
Lord Biron (Love’s Labour’s Lost)

From one of Shakespeare’s earliest comedies, comes this character, one of the companions of the king of Navarre. He is considered the most interesting character in the play because he is the voice of reason to the king. He is the most reflective and warns against the proposed law that the four men cut themselves off from women for three years ‘ noting that the princess and her three ladies in waiting are already on their way. He continues to be this reflective voice of reason through the comedy.

  1. Lady Capulet (Romeo and Juliet)

Lady Capulet and the Nurse persuade Juliet to marry Paris
Lady Capulet and the Nurse persuade Juliet to marry Paris

The definitive difficult relationship between mother and teenage daughter, Juliet feels much closer to her nurse but that doesn’t stop Lady Capulet reaching out to her daughter ‘ something that is the cause of friction when Juliet refuses her advances. However, she makes some very big mistakes in demanding that Juliet marry Paris and when Juliet turns to her to ask her to at least delay the wedding, her mother refuses with a cold comment.

  1. Sir John Falstaff (Henry IV, The Merry Wives of Windsor)

Sir John Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff

Seemingly a buffoon of a character, he is also rather dastardly and a bit of a coward. What we might today call ‘the lovable rogue’, Falstaff is a conflicting character about whom lengthy character studies have been written but we could only begin to summarise the dichotomy that is his character. He is presented at the real Battle of Shrewsbury as a man taking the wages of dead men and bribes from those who did not wish to fight. His death is reported in the play Henry V but he does not make an appearance.

  1. Olivia (Twelfth Night)

Olivia (Twelfth Night)
Olivia (Twelfth Night)

An Illyrian by birth, at the start of the play she enters a period of mourning for seven years after the death of her brother who had become her guardian since the death of their father. The play is then a series of potential suitors attempting to encourage her out of her self-imposed exile. Eventually she succumbs to Cesario (Viola – a girl pretending to be a boy) but eventually marries the girl’s real brother, Sebastian (whom Viola believed killed in a shipwreck).

  1. Brutus (Julius Caesar)

Brutus (Julius Caesar)
Brutus (Julius Caesar)

A real character from the annals of history, Brutus was in real life a Roman politician, close confidante of Julius Caesar and co-conspirator of the plot to assassinate him. In the play, Brutus defends his actions publicly in claiming that he had acted for Rome. Later, he is tormented by the spirit of Caesar ahead of the Battle of Philippi in which Brutus sided with the eastern provinces against the forces of Octavian and Marc Antony. Brutus took his own life after the battle.

  1. Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)

Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)
Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)

She is the wife of the protagonist and the main reason for his torment having convinced him to commit the regicide after Macbeth is told by the three witches that he will be king. Arguably, she is the primary villain ‘ at least early on. That is of course until later when he becomes quite capable of carrying out further atrocities without her input. In the end, she takes her own life having suffered the guilt of her actions.

Conclusion

The depth and breadth of characters created by William Shakespeare across a variety of genres demonstrates the man’s talent for good characterisation. Above are ten of the most notable and there are far more examples, some we love and some we loathe. Some were central to the plays they were in, others worked behind the scenes but all were pivotal to the stories and demonstrate how important he believed people were in stories.

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