Hamlet: Plot Summary

The play opens on the freezing battlements of Elsinore Castle, where guards witness the Ghost of the late King Hamlet. They summon Prince Hamlet to see it. The Ghost reveals he was murdered by Claudius (poisoned in the ear) and commands Hamlet to "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." Hamlet vows obedience and decides to feign madness ("put an antic disposition on") to investigate the truth without arousing suspicion.

Hamlet’s strange behaviour alarms the court. Polonius, the Lord Chamberlain, is convinced Hamlet is mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia. King Claudius, suspecting a deeper threat, summons Hamlet’s school friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to spy on the Prince. A troupe of travelling actors arrives, and Hamlet devises a trap: he will have the actors perform a play resembling his father’s murder (The Mousetrap) to watch Claudius’s reaction and prove his guilt.

This is the turning point. Hamlet debates suicide ("To be, or not to be") and brutally rejects Ophelia ("Get thee to a nunnery"). During the performance of The Mousetrap, Claudius panics and storms out, confirming his guilt. Hamlet resolves to kill him but hesitates when he finds Claudius praying. Later, Hamlet confronts his mother, Gertrude. Hearing a noise behind the tapestry, he stabs through it, believing it to be Claudius, but kills Polonius instead. The Ghost appears to remind Hamlet of his mission.

Claudius, fearing for his life, sends Hamlet to England with secret orders for his execution. Ophelia, broken by her father’s death and Hamlet’s cruelty, goes mad and eventually drowns. Her brother, Laertes, returns from France leading a mob, demanding vengeance. News arrives that Hamlet has escaped the plot and is back in Denmark. Claudius manipulates Laertes into a new plot: they will kill Hamlet during a fencing match using a poisoned blade and a poisoned cup of wine.

Hamlet and Horatio walk through a graveyard, where Hamlet contemplates mortality while holding the skull of Yorick, the jester. The duel begins. Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned blade, but in the scuffle, they exchange swords, and Hamlet wounds Laertes with it as well. Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine and dies. Laertes reveals the plot. Hamlet finally kills Claudius. As the Danish royal family lies dead, Fortinbras of Norway arrives to claim the throne.