Hamlet: Character Traits Hamlet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. Hamlet is the protagonist of the play and is portrayed as a very emotional soul, a daring, brave character who has a bad and violent temper. Hamlet is a very emotional young man. As we all know, his father's death was a shock for him and he could not get over it. Claudius mentions that Hamlet was taking the mourning of his father's death to extremes: To give these mourning duties to your father; But you must know, your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound In filial obligation for some term To do