Hamlet's uncle was a character in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
In his first thoughts for the early scenes of the play, Shakespeare wrote that Hamlet's uncle murdered his father and married his sister-in-law to steal the throne of Denmark. Hamlet later discovered this. Shakespeare briefly considered a confession from Hamlet's uncle as how he would have found out but eventually settled on the information coming from a magician. In the final draft, this magician was replaced by the ghost of Hamlet's father. (PROSE: Notes on a Play)