Delacroix sets the stage and introduces the main characters—Hamlet, Queen Gertrude, and King Claudius—with a succinct scene in the state room of the castle of Elsinore. Mourning his father’s death and distressed by his mother’s hasty remarriage, Hamlet rejects the queen’s urgings to give up his dark attire. His sideways glance indicates his growing suspicion of his uncle Claudius, the new king.