Horatio Character Analysis

492 Words2 Pages
Horatio’s character is relatively simple when compared to many others in Hamlet. He is calm, collected, and logical; he is the left-brain to Hamlet’s right, anchoring him logically to the realities of the world around him. Though Horatio’s character isn’t as complexly developed, he has a single key illusionary trait that serves the strategy perfectly. Horatio is the picture of reliability. Strategically, this gives him incredible power over the direction of the story by being indisputably credible and also the rock that Hamlet clings to in the storm of his mind. Horatio enjoys the absolute trust of those who know him. He is the one the guards bring to witness with them the ghost’s appearance, Hamlet seeks for council regarding Claudius, and even Claudius asks to look after Hamlet. These relationships put him in a position to manipulate the other characters to his will, but he doesn’t. The real purpose for his strategic power is as a transmitter of unbiased information. He is the outside observer to the madness; once something has been told to Horatio we, the audience feel safe believing it to be true. Hamlet’s soliloquizing puts an incredible strain on our confidence in his mental stability, but the conversations he and Horatio share give him credibility. Horatio follows a parallel journey to the audience throughout. His initial skepticism of the ghost echoes our own, and so once he is convinced so are we. Hamlet is also reluctant to believe until Horatio tells him of his first hand encounter. After Hamlet converses with the ghost Horatio, worried about his friend, questions Hamlet’s speculations, justifying the concern for his mental capacities that we are already feeling. Horatio is Hamlet’s rock. His steadfast determination to his friend allows us to believe in Hamlet, because if Horatio had not supported him even once all of our faith in his sanity would have
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