Hamlet: Encyclopedia II - Hamlet - Plot summary

Hamlet - Plot summary

The play concerns the dilemma of Prince Hamlet, whose father, the late King of Denmark, victor over the sled-riding Polish army, died suddenly while Hamlet was away at university. Prior to the opening of the play, the King's brother Claudius had himself proclaimed king, and cemented his claim to the throne by marrying Hamlet's mother Gertrude, the widowed Queen.

The play opens on the battlements of Elsinore Castle, seat of the Danish monarchy, where a group of sentries is terrified by the apparition of the recently deceased King Hamlet. Hamlet's friend Horatio joins the soldiers and when the ghost appears, bids it speak. They are aware it has some message to carry, but it vanishes with the arrival of dawn.

The next day, the Danish court meets to celebrate the wedding of Claudius and Gertrude. The new King urges Hamlet not to persist in his grief. Left by himself, Hamlet expresses his anger at the accession of his uncle Claudius and his mother's hasty remarriage. Horatio and the guards come on the scene and tell him of the appearance of the ghost. Hamlet is determined to investigate.

Joining Horatio on watch on the battlements that night, just as Hamlet is delivering a speech censuring the Danes for their drunkenness, the ghost appears. It beckons him to a corner by himself and reveal to him a fearful secret: his father was indeed murdered. He was poisoned through the ear by Claudius, and the Ghost commands Hamlet to avenge him. Shocked by the discovery, Hamlet returns to Horatio and the sentries, and made them swear an oath not to reveal details of the night's happenings to any one.

Hamlet is unsure whether the ghost he has seen is truly his father, and suspects that it might be the devil taking his father's appearance in order to cause havoc. He therefore sets out to test the king's conscience through putting on an "antic disposition" (acting insane), in the hope that his outrageous behavior might reveal the truth, or otherwise acquire the opportunity to put an end to Claudius.

Hamlet uses his feigned insanity to taunt Claudius and Gertrude, and takes an especial delight in making a fool of Polonius, the king's Polish-born councillor. Polonius is certain that Hamlet is mad with love for his daughter Ophelia. Claudius, perhaps suspecting Hamlet's ruse, also asks his sometime schoolmates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to monitor him, but Hamlet does not let his guard down. He enlists a company of travelling performers to stage an existing play which he has modified to re-enact the circumstances of his father's murder.

Midway at the play, Claudius cannot bear to watch, and asks for lights. The king's anguished reaction to the performance (which Horatio also notices) convinces Hamlet of his guilt. Shortly afterwards, Claudius make plans for Hamlet to be deported to England with Rosencratz and Guildenstern, on the excuse of his insanity. Left alone, he privately expresses his disgust at what he has done, and offers up a prayer of repentance. Hamlet discovers Claudius at prayer, and prepares to kill him, but then stops, reasoning that he does not want his revenge to have the result of sending the repentant Claudius to heaven. In a double irony, after Hamlet slips away, Claudius concludes that he is unable to repent in his current state of mind; thus, if Hamlet had not attempted to arrogate to himself the destiny of Claudius's soul, rather than just his life, he would have gotten the ultimate justice he sought. By trying to go beyond the ghost's orders, he has doomed his efforts to failure.

Hamlet confronts his mother about the murder of his father and her sexual relations with her new husband, and during their conversation, he stabs Polonius, who has been hiding behind a tapestry eavesdropping on their conversation, thinking it may have been Claudius. Unrepentant of his crime, he continues to admonish his mother. King Hamlet's ghost makes a reappearance to rebuke Hamlet. Hamlet's mother cannot see the ghost, and sees him conversing with it, is convinced that her son has really gone mad.

Claudius, who has figured out Hamlet's real motivation, sends Hamlet to England, supposedly for his safety, but accompanied by a sealed letter to the English ordering his death. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent along to ensure the orders are carried out. On the way to England, Hamlet's ship is attacked by pirates, who take Hamlet prisoner but then return him to Denmark.

Meanwhile, Ophelia goes mad, having been deeply disturbed by Hamlet's feigned rejection of her, and driven to madness by the death of Polonius. She sings a number of rustic melodies that Shakespeare may have pilfered from the English folk tradition. In what may have been a suicide attempt, she falls into a brook and drowns. Laertes, her brother, returns from overseas, and is hungry to avenge for his father's and sister's deaths.

Hamlet, returning from his voyage, meets Horatio in a graveyard outside Elsinore just as Ophelia's funeral cortege arrives there, where a clown is digging. Hamlet finds the skull of Yorick (see skull as a symbol), an old jester who has carried him on his back in his childhood, and proclaims of it, "Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft." As Hamlet broods on mortality, the cortege arrives with the King, Queen and Laertes. Hamlet becomes so distraught on learning Ophelia's death that he leaps onto the open grave and grapples with Laertes.

On learning Hamlet is not dead and has returned, Laertes and Claudius engineer a scheme to kill Hamlet while making the death look like an accident. To this end, Claudius instructs Laertes to challenge Hamlet to a fencing match. Unknown to Hamlet, Laertes will be fighting with a sharpened and poisoned foil, instead of the customary blunted and unpoisoned blade. In addition, Claudius prepares some poisoned wine for Hamlet to drink as a toast, in the event that Laertes is unable to hit him.

While waiting for the match, Hamlet and Horatio jest with the diffident fop Osric. At the match Hamlet wins the first two rounds, and Gertrude drinks some of the wine to toast him, unaware that it is poisoned. Hamlet is pricked with the sword and fatally poisoned, but in the ensuing brawl, he swaps blades with Laertes, and deals a deep wound to Laertes with the poisoned sword as well. The Queen dies from the drink, and warns Hamlet that the drink is poisoned. With his dying breath, Leartes also confesses the whole plot to Hamlet. Enraged, Hamlet kills Claudius with the poisoned weapon, forcing him also to drink the poisoned wine, at last avenging his father's death.

Horatio, horrified at the turn of events, seizes the poisoned wine and proposes to join his friend in death, but Hamlet wrests the cup away from him. He orders him to tell his story to the world at large to restore Hamlet's good name. Hamlet also recommends that the Norwegian prince, Fortinbras, be chosen as rightful successor to the Danish throne. Hamlet dies, and Horatio mourns his passing:

Fortinbras appears with English ambassadors. Shocked by the carnage on display, he orders a military funeral for Hamlet, whilst Horatio offers to relate the whole tale to the public.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Plot summary", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki