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In Shakespeare’s Hamlet there are two main families in which the play Revolves around. These are the families of Polonius and Hamlet. Now these are not your stereotypical families, which you can expect giving that this is a play written by Shakespeare. Your regular, normal everyday family is what would be called a Nuclear family.

What would seem to be your average family of royalty, the house of Hamlet was far from it. After Hamlets father passed away to what seemed to be an “unfortunate death” turned out to be a murder by Hamlets own uncle. After the death Hamlets uncle married Hamlets mother making Claudius the new King of Demark. This angers Hamlet because now he loses his place on the thrown. Not only does he show hate towards his “new father” but he does the same to his mother. So in order to fix things Hamlet comes up with a plan to kill Claudius.

The next major family is the family of Polonius, although it does not say much about his parents or his wife, his two children play huge roles in the play. This family is what you would expect to find in your Nuclear Family as the father is the person in charge and the children respect him enough to obey his wishes. They obey him so much Ophelia even started to ignore the person she loved because her father told her to do so. But when hamlet murders Polonius this Nuclear family gets destroyed and Laertes plots to kill Hamlet and Ophelia kills herself.