Horatio is not directly involved in any intrigue at the court, but he makes a good foil and sounding board for Hamlet.

[citation needed] Being from Wittenberg, a university that defined the institutional switch from theology to humanism, Horatio epitomizes the early modern fusion of Stoic and Protestant rationality.

Many commentators have linked the name to the Latin words ratiō ("reason") and ōrātor ("speaker"), noting his role as a reasoner with Prince Hamlet, and surviving (even though he begged for death) to tell Hamlet's heroic tale at the end of the play.

[4][5][6] Horatio is present in the first scene of the play, accompanying Barnardo and Marcellus on watch duty, for they claim to have "twice seen" the ghost of King Hamlet.

He does intend to poison himself, saying that he is "more an antique Roman than a Dane", but Hamlet, dying, implores him rather to deal with the fallout and "wounded name": If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity a while, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain To tell my story.

[clarification needed] Through his role of 'outside observer', he makes the audience believe Hamlet's actions, no matter how incredible they may look to readers at first sight.