Something is amiss in Denmark -- for two successive nights, the midnight guard has witnessed the appearance of the ghost of Old Hamlet, the former King of Denmark who has recently died. The guards bring Horatio, a learned scholar and friend of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, to witness this apparition. Though skeptical at first, Horatio sees the ghost and decides to report its appearance to Hamlet.
Meanwhile, a new king of Denmark has been crowned: Claudius, Old Hamlet's brother. Claudius has taken Old Hamlet's widow, Gertrude, as his wife. We watch their marriage celebration and hear about a threat from the Prince of Norway, Fortinbras, which Claudius manages to avoid by diplomacy. Hamlet is in attendance at this wedding celebration; he is hardly
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Hamlet turns the tables on her, accusing her of a most grotesque lust and claiming that she has insulted her father and herself by stooping to marry Claudius. In the course of their interview, Polonius hides behind a tapestry; at one point, he thinks that Hamlet is going to attack Gertrude and cries for help. Hamlet stabs Polonius through the tapestry, thinking he has killed Claudius. When he finds that he has merely killed a "rash, intruding fool," Hamlet returns to the business of "speaking daggers" to his mother. Just as Gertrude appears convinced by Hamlet's excoriation, the ghost of Old Hamlet reappears and tells Hamlet not to behave so cruelly to his mother, and to remember to carry out revenge on Claudius. Gertrude perceives her son discoursing with nothing but air and is completely convinced of his madness. Hamlet exits her room, dragging the body of Polonius behind …show more content…
Two gravediggers joke about their morbid occupation. Hamlet and Horatio arrive and converse with them. Soon, Ophelia's funeral begins. Because there are doubts about whether Ophelia died accidentally or committed suicide, her funeral lacks many of the customary religious rites. Laertes bombastically dramatizes his grief, prompting Hamlet to reveal himself and declare his equal grief at the loss of his erstwhile beloved. After a short tussle, Hamlet and Laertes part.
Later, Hamlet explains to Horatio that he discovered Claudius' plot to have him killed in England and forged a new letter arranging for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. While they are conversing, Osric, a ridiculous courtier, approaches and proposes the duel between Laertes and Hamlet. Hamlet eventually accepts this challenge.
The duel begins with Osric as referee. Hamlet wins the first two passes, prompting Claudius to resort to the poisoned drink. Hamlet refuses the drink. In his stead, Gertrude drinks a toast to her son from the poisoned cup. After a third pass also goes to Hamlet, Laertes sneak-attacks the prince and wounds him. A scuffle ensues in which Hamlet ends up with Laertes' sword. He injures Laertes. Just then Gertrude collapses. She declares that she has been poisoned. Laertes, also dying, confesses the whole plot to Hamlet, who finally attacks Claudius, stabbing him with the poisoned sword and then forcing the poisoned drink down his throat. Hamlet too is
He tells Laertes in order to make sure the young man gets revenge for his father, King Claudius will have them fence, and stack the odds in Laertes favor. He places poison on the edge of Laertes’ sword and places poison in the drink of Hamlet. When the fight is about to take place, Hamlet comes to Laertes and tells him he knows what he did was totally unjust. He asks for Laertes’ forgiveness, claiming it wasn’t truly Hamlet’s fault, rather than Hamlet’s mental illness to blame.
It is or is it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity? I’m not saying Hamlet was faking the whole thing. The meaning for insanity on Dictionary.com is “a permanent disorder of the mind.” I don 't think Hamlet had a permanent disorder of the mind he knew what he was doing and even planned the majority of the events that happened. Most of the time anyway.
Then, Laertes chooses to become a participant in the killing of Hamlet. As aforementioned, this plan for death is a success, but causes many other deaths along with Hamlet to fail.
Hamlet is very secretive about the ghost, until he tries to convince Gertrude he is there, and fails in the process, which only causes her to believe he is more crazy. King Claudius is a character full of corrupt power, lies and mystery. Claudius’ entire life as king spirals from the secret that he killed his brother, married his wife and essentially stole the crown. Carrying around that disastrous secret
Soon after, his sister Ophelia is pronounced dead which only intensifies his anger towards Hamlet. Laertes bellows at Hamlet, “The devil take thy soul!”(5.1.243), uncovering that he accuses Hamlet for the passing of his dad and now sister. This drive is what prompted Laertes to collaborate with Claudius in Hamlet’s murder yet ultimately leading to his own death. This thirst for vengeance causes him to act quickly and abruptly, unintentionally getting poisoned by his own sword. Though Laertes surely illustrates how revenge can lead to one’s downfall, there is one character that proves this to be true even more so.
Laertes was worried about his and his dad’s pride so he decide to murder hamlet. Laertes plans the big fencing match with Hamlet. He tricked hamlet and poisoned the tip of his sword. After he poisoned the tip of his sword everything went downhill. Laertes was being greedy because he wanted his dad to be king and stay king.
A rat?.” (2. 4. 22.) After he yells this out, Hamlet takes his sword and stabs it through the curtain killing who he thinks is Claudius, but is really Polonius. Gertrude is horrified and asks Hamlet what he’s done.
Throughout the play, Gertrude’s honour is constantly attacked and damaged. Following the death of her beloved husband, a hasty marriage to her former brother-in-law, Claudius, commences. “Although the memories of my dear brother Hamlet’s death are fresh…with sadness and delight do I marry my former sister-in-law” (Shakespeare, pg.10). Gertrude’s integrity and honour is brought into question as she weds the unknown murderer of her deceased husband. A basis of respect for the deceased is an important statue in the court of Denmark.
He becomes secretly obsessed in discovering Hamlet’s motives and how to put an end to them. With the death of Polonius and Ophelia, Laertes arrives demanding justice for his fallen family. At her burial, Laertes and Hamlet argue over the others love for Ophelia. Madness grew in both for “they continued to fight, without ever again mentioning Ophelia by name” which exemplifies madness’s ability to conceal the mind from what is important (Steinnes 824). With the whirlpool of tragedy consuming more people due to Hamlet’s conflict, Claudius grows increasingly unreasonable.
His suicidal thought and his erratic behavior cause for the king, queen, Ophelia and his friends to begin to spy on him just pushes him over the edge. His action cause concern for King Claudius who shows in ways that he is not trusting of Hamlet because of this the King begins to plot with Laertes to kill hamlet in fencing dual. During this dual Hamlet is stabbed and dies from the poison that was on the blade. Gertrude is seems to be a shallow woman in some ways yet King Hamlet, Hamlet and King Claudius are all devoted to her.
Hamlet eventually kills Claudius like his father told him to, but only did it after his mother, Gertrude, drank the poison that Claudius meant to give Hamlet. This is a result of external action from all the sorrows that was building up in Hamlet’s life. This brings us to our next character, Gertrude, Claudius’s wife and Hamlets
After the sighting of the ghost, Shakespeare introduces a grieving Hamlet, and the happy couple, Claudius and Gertrude. Claudius gives a rousing speech to the court which creates a supporting group for his rule, yet he still can not get Hamlet to fall in line with the rest of the crowd. Old Hamlet’s murder still preoccupies Hamlet’s mind, so Claudius decides to take a drastic measure to win Hamlet to his side. Claudius states to the entire court and Hamlet that, “[He is] the most immediate to our throne, and with no less nobility of love than that which dearest father bears his son do I impart to [him]” (Hamlet 1.2 113-116). By naming Hamlet as his heir, Claudius sets up the ending of the play perfectly.
On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle, the sentries Bernardo and Marcellus discuss a ghost resembling the late King Hamlet which they have recently seen, and bring Prince Hamlet's friend Horatio as a witness. After the ghost appears again, the three vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed. As the court gathers the next day, while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius, Hamlet looks on glumly. During the court, Claudius grants permission for Polonius's son Laertes to return to school in France, and sends envoys to inform the King of Norway about Fortinbras. Claudius also scolds Hamlet for continuing to grief over his father, and forbids him from
The last act starts with the conversation of Hamlet and Horatio with the gravedigger, which is shown to be a comic relief from the tragedies happening. Then, later on, in Ophelia’s burial the priests makes it seem like a suicide and not surprisingly makes Laertes mad about it. This was because he loved his sister very much and has lost her forever. In addition, we learn how Hamlet escaped the trip to England and reveals his true intentions of killing King Claudius. Which leads up to the match against Laertes and as everyone arrives Gertrude drinks the poisoned cup even though Claudius told her not to.
Although Hamlet is a fictional protagonist of Shakespeare, his arrogance and pride are real in the human world. The moment where Hamlet confronts Gertrude and murders Polonius (Act 3, scene 4) is the one that best illustrates Hamlet's hamartia of the options that are provided. Hamlet confronts Gertrude about her relationship with Claudius when he enters her room in this scene. He fails to think about the repercussions of his actions as he fiercely vents his wrath and disdain toward her. As two months passed, everyone moved on and got involved in celebrating the marriage of King Claudius, and his mother, Queen Gertrude but he was still stuck on the revenge of his father's death.