Why Horatio?

As we all know, Shakespeare’s Hamlet has a devastating ending. Just about every character that we came to know in the story dies. This starts with Ophelia’s suicide caused by her madness. Then in the last scene we see the deaths of the Queen, Gertrude, followed by the King Claudius, then Laertes and finally Hamlet. As Hanlet is dying, he speaks to his good friend Horatio and tells him to live on to tell Hamlet’s story. The thig I was wondering is why does Shakespeare choose to keep Horatio alive out of all the characters? Horatio is the only major character to survive so why him? What’s the importance of Horatio? I decided to some research on this and I found something interesting. Shakespeare possibly gave Horatio his name because it is based on two Latin words: ratio meaning “reason” and orator meaning “speaker”. Knowing this shows two important characteristics of Horatio. Horatio I noticed often serves as someone who shows reason and common sense (mostly when it comes to consulting Hamlet) For example, Horatio doesn’t believe Hamlet at first when Hamlet tells him of seeing his father’s ghost. Also, at the end, when Hamlet telling Horatio to stay alive and tell his story is a reference to how his name based on the Latin word for speaker. Horatio serves as the speaker of Hamlet’s story. That is why Shakespeare chose to keep him alive I believe.