Polonius is the Lord Chamberlain of Denmark in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the chief political adviser to King Claudius and father of Laertes and Ophelia. He is long‑winded, fond of giving moralistic advice, obsessed with spying and court intrigue, and is ultimately killed by Hamlet while eavesdropping behind a curtain in Gertrude’s chamber, a death that helps drive Ophelia’s madness and Laertes’s quest for revenge.