Hamlet

Hamlet enters with some of the actors, instructing them on their performance. He hates melodramatic overacting; he insists that the purpose of theater is to “hold […] the mirror up to nature” (3.2.21-22).

Horatio appears, and Hamlet greets him with praise, calling him the most just and reasonable person he knows. He refuses Horatio’s polite disavowals, pointing out that he can’t be giving false flattery because Horatio has nothing to give him. He confides in Horatio and tells him his plan for the play, asking him to watch Claudius and see how he reacts. Horatio agrees.

Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern arrive to watch the play. Gertrude invites Hamlet to sit by her, but Hamlet rejects her company in favor of Ophelia’s. He discomfits Ophelia with pointed sexual jokes and references to Gertrude’s speedy remarriage.

The play begins with a silent pantomime: A king and queen lovingly lie down in an orchard. The king falls asleep, the queen departs, and another man enters; he takes the king’s crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the king’s ear. The queen finds the king dead and is horrified. The other man consoles her, then woos her and wins her over.

This scene makes Ophelia confused and uncomfortable. Hamlet responds only with more lewd jokes. The play proper begins, with the player queen avowing to the player king that to take a second husband if her first died would be to kill her first husband twice, and she’d never do it. The player king doubts this.

Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, and Ophelia discuss the play; Hamlet notes everyone’s growing discomfort. When the murderer poisons the king, Claudius gets up and flees, as Hamlet predicted he would. Horatio and Hamlet excitedly discuss this.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern bring Hamlet a report of Claudius’s agitation and tell him Gertrude wants to speak with him. Hamlet refuses to give them straight answers, playing more word games and accusing them of trickery and treachery. Polonius enters and asks Hamlet to come see Gertrude; Hamlet taunts him, but agrees at last. He ends the scene speaking of his murderous rage but vowing not to injure his mother.

Claudius, knowing that Hamlet is onto him, asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to take Hamlet away to England, claiming that this is for the good of Denmark. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern agree, speaking of the importance of the body politic over any one person’s life.

Polonius enters, saying that he’ll complete his plan of hiding himself behind a tapestry to eavesdrop on Hamlet’s conversation with Gertrude. Claudius thanks him and sends him away.

Alone, a shaken Claudius reflects on his guilt. Horrified by his own crime, he feels himself unable to pray for forgiveness because he is still benefiting from his brother’s murder. On earth, forgiveness can be bought, but heavenly justice doesn’t work that way. Claudius, trapped and agonized, calls out to the angels for help and is kneeling to pray when Hamlet enters.

Hamlet sees Claudius kneeling and thinks that now would be an easy time to kill him. He dissuades himself, saying that it wouldn’t be a full revenge if he killed Claudius while he was praying; Hamlet’s father wasn’t given the chance to pray or repent before his death. Hamlet vows to wait and kill Claudius when Claudius is embroiled in gambling, drinking, or sex. He creeps away.

Claudius rises, saying that the words of his prayer alone won’t be received in heaven. His thoughts have to align with his words, or his prayer is meaningless.

Polonius speaks briefly with Gertrude, then hides behind a tapestry in her room. Hamlet enters, and Gertrude tries to scold him for his behavior. Hamlet responds with rage and disgust, calling her “your husband’s brother’s wife” (3.4.16). Gertrude becomes frightened that Hamlet will hurt her, and Polonius cries for help. Hamlet stabs Polonius through the tapestry, killing him.

Hamlet is appalled by what he’s done, but not so much as to be diverted from his purpose: He tells Gertrude that Claudius killed the king. He forces Gertrude to look at portraits of the king and of Claudius, comparing them point by point: The king, he says, was almost godlike, where Claudius is in comparison “like a mildewed ear / Blasting his wholesome brother” (3.4.64-65). In a disgusted diatribe, Hamlet wonders what could possibly have moved his mother to marry Claudius. Gertrude begs him to stop; his words, she says, show her “my very soul, / And there I see such black and grainèd spots / As will leave there their tinct” (3.4.89-91). But Hamlet won’t relent, and he torments Gertrude by describing her marriage bed with Claudius.

The ghost suddenly enters, wearing nightclothes instead of armor. He reminds Hamlet that his job isn’t to torment his mother, but to kill Claudius. At the ghost’s command, Hamlet turns to his mother—but she cannot see the ghost, and thinks this is more evidence of Hamlet’s madness.

Hamlet assures his mother that he is sane, tells her to repent her sins, instructs her not to sleep with Claudius again, and gives an equivocal semi-apology for his behavior: “Forgive me this my virtue. / For in the fatness of these pursy times / Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg” (3.4.152-154). He also swears her to secrecy about his feigned madness. 

Hamlet closes the act by vowing that, while he must go to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he will turn this plot of Claudius’s against him. He drags the body of Polonius away with him.

Gertrude immediately tells Claudius much of what has just happened: She reports that Hamlet has gone mad and killed Polonius, and that he is now dragging the body around the house, weeping over it. Claudius summons Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find Hamlet, planning to send him away and cover up the murder.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find Hamlet, ask him where he’s put Polonius’s body, and tell him he must go to Claudius. Hamlet refuses to tell them anything at first, calling them “sponges” who will soak up his words and deliver them to Claudius. At last, Hamlet agrees to go with them.

Claudius muses that, though Hamlet is dangerous to him, he must treat him carefully: Hamlet is popular with the public, “who like not in their judgment, but their eyes” (4.3.4).

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter, bringing Hamlet with them; he still refuses to say where he’s left Polonius’s body, but grimly jokes that Polonius is “at supper” (in other words, a feast for worms) or in heaven, or maybe hell, in which case Claudius may go find him himself. 

Claudius tells Hamlet that, for his own safety, they will send him abroad immediately. Hamlet leaves, and Claudius, in an aside, describes how he will have Hamlet assassinated in England.

Fortinbras and his army have arrived in Denmark. Per their arrangement with Claudius, they will not attack the Danes and will be granted free passage through the country to fight the Poles.

Hamlet, on his way to the ship that will take him to England, runs into a Norwegian captain, who tells him their plans. He says that the piece of land they’re fighting for is worth very little, yet the Poles are already preparing to battle for it. Hamlet marvels that so much effort and violence will go into reclaiming this spot of ground, all for the sake of Fortinbras’s and Norway’s honor.

While Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go on ahead, Hamlet stays to muse on valor. Without some sense of personal pride and reason, he says, a human’s life isn’t worth anything more than a beast’s. He castigates himself for showing so little resolve in his revenge, when 20,000 men may die to reclaim a worthless patch of land. He resolves to let their example drive him: “O, from this time forth / My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!” (4.4.65-66)

Gertrude, Horatio, and a gentleman are discussing Ophelia, who has been behaving strangely in the wake of her father’s death. The guilt-riddled and increasingly paranoid Gertrude does not want to speak to Ophelia, but Horatio suggests it might be a good idea politically. Ophelia might stir up doubt and anger if she is left unchecked.

When Ophelia appears, she is obviously unwell: She wanders around singing about love and death, and recounting old folktales. After she drifts away, Claudius reflects that sorrows travel in packs, and he recounts the tragedies that have befallen Denmark.

A messenger announces that an enraged Laertes has returned from France and that the people in the street are calling for him to be made king, against all tradition. Laertes himself arrives shortly thereafter; believing Claudius to have killed Polonius, he swears that he will take bloody revenge. Claudius, seeing a potential use for Laertes’s rage, explains that he didn’t kill Polonius—Hamlet did.

Ophelia reappears and distributes symbolic flowers to the assembled crowd: pansy for thoughts, rosemary for remembrance, rue for regret. Laertes is distraught: “O heavens, is’t possible a young maid’s wits / Should be as mortal as an old man’s life?” (4.5.159-160).

Taking advantage of the moment, Claudius makes Laertes his ally, vowing to help him take proper revenge.

Some sailors deliver a letter from Hamlet to Horatio. Hamlet’s ship, the letter reports, was attacked by pirates, who are now holding Hamlet hostage. Hamlet asks Horatio to deliver another letter informing Claudius of these events, and adds that he has news about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he can only tell Horatio in person. He signs his letter, “He that thou knowest thine” (4.6.30). Horatio, alarmed, goes to do as Hamlet asks him.

Claudius is conspiring with Laertes when a messenger delivers Hamlet’s news. Claudius is upset to hear that Hamlet is returning, but Laertes is ready to fight. Claudius flatters Laertes, telling him all of the good things he has heard about him. In particular, he tells the story of a renowned French knight called Lamort, who, he says, praised Laertes so lavishly that Hamlet became jealous. Abruptly, Claudius asks Laertes if he truly loved Polonius. Claudius explains that it is not that he doesn’t think Laertes loved his father, but that he knows love alters over time, and that words aren’t always matched with deeds. Laertes protests that he would slit Hamlet’s throat even if he saw him in a church.

Satisfied, Claudius lays out his plot: When Hamlet returns, they’ll spread rumors of Laertes’s brilliance as a fighter and goad Hamlet into agreeing to duel with him. Laertes will fight with a poisoned sword, so he’ll only need to nick Hamlet to kill him. As a backup, Claudius will keep a poisoned goblet of wine on hand, so they can toast Hamlet to his death.

Gertrude arrives with terrible news: Ophelia has fallen into a brook and drowned. Laertes tries to bury his grief in rage but can’t stop himself from weeping, and he departs to prepare his revenge against Hamlet. Claudius insinuates to Gertrude that he’s been trying to calm Laertes down; they follow him.