English 12 Hamlet Synopsis
Act 1
“Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch’d:”
Hamlet, the King of Denmark has recently died, and
his brother, Claudius has succeeded to the throne.
He has also, with the approval of the Danish lords,
married his brother’s widow, Gertrude. The son of
the dead king, Prince Hamlet, had returned from
university in Germany to Denmark for the funeral,
but two months later he is still in apparent mourning
for his father. The play begins with the ghost of his
father appearing on the ramparts. When Prince
Hamlet is persuaded by the guards to come see for
himself, the plot, as it were, thickens. The ghost tells
his son to avenge his death by killing Claudius, but
leaving the Queen, his mother unharmed.
Despite the common sense that ghosts and witches
may be evil and cause harm, Hamlet tells the guards
it is “an Honest ghost” and swears them to secrecy.
Also, he says he is going to “put an antic disposition
on”, which suggests he will pretend to be mad or
insane.
Act 2
“I am but mad north-north-west. When the
wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.”
Ophelia, a young lady of the court who has been receiving
love-letters from Hamlet in the past, reports to her father,
Polonius, that the Prince is acting strangely. Claudius and
Gertrude have been concerned about their son’s unending
mourning, and would like to solve this problem. Polonius
has earlier told Ophelia to reject all letters and communication with Hamlet, and thus thinks that Hamlet’s behaviour is caused by his apparently being rejected by Ophelia.
Thus the focus of attention is on the state of Hamlet’s
mind.
Claudius has met with two of Hamlet’s boyhood friends to ask them if they can find out
what’s causing Hamlet’s continuing gloominess. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern chat with
Hamlet, but are unsuccessful in discovering anything useful. However, they report that
Hamlet showed some joy in hearing about a troupe of actors coming to amuse the court and
this pleases both the King and Queen.
Act 2 begins with Polonius hiring Reynaldo to spy on Polonius’s son Laertes in Paris. The act
ends with Hamlet’s plan to spy on Claudius while the king watches a play Hamlet has
arranged with the players to put on before the court. Between these incidents, we have
Polonius who will “loose” his daughter, Ophelia, on Hamlet while Polonius and Claudius spy
on her meeting with Hamlet. They will take advantage of Ophelia to find out why Hamlet is
mad. Also, in this act, Claudius hires (bribes?) Hamlet’s friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
to spy on Hamlet.
With so many people spying on others, the audience gets the sense that “Denmark’s a
prison” – indeed, it might be considered a kind of police state in which relationships between
lovers, friends, parents and children, kings and subjects are corrupted. This corruption adds
further to the personal, social and moral turmoil in Denmark ostensibly caused by Claudius’s
murder of the true king and his subsequent incestuous marriage to Gertrude. It is in this
morally compromised country that Hamlet has been given the task of avenging his father’s
death while at the same time wondering about the moral turpitude of the ghost. Hamlet is
caught up in a conundrum in which he’s the only person concerned about morality in personal, social and state relationships. It’s small wonder that he’s confused, that he needs to
feign madness so that he can seek truth, and that he berates himself for not avenging his
father’s murder immediately.]
Act 3
“Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven,
And so am I revenged. That would be scanned.
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.”
Polonius has the King listen in on an encounter
between his daughter and Hamlet. Expecting some
evidence that Hamlet may be professing his love for
Ophelia and trying to regain her attention, the two
spying fathers are subjected to a ranting and raving
Hamlet who coldly declares he never loved her, and
orders her to go to a nunnery. In other words, he has
no intention of marrying her. Hamlet seems to be
aware that her father is listening, and that this cruel
act may be part of his “antic disposition.”
At this point Claudius is no longer thinking Hamlet is mad, but dangerous, and decides to
send Hamlet to England. He asks Polonius if he agrees, but Ophelia’s father is still certain that
if Hamlet were entreated by his mother, he would show the cause of his grief to be neglected
love.
The troupe of actors perform a play with a scene added by Hamlet that re-enacts the ghost’s
version of his murder, poison poured in his ear while sleeping in an orchard. The King is obviously shaken, and calls for light. The entertainment ends and Hamlet is now convinced that
the ghost’s version is true, and that Hamlet is bound to avenge his murder by killing
Claudius.
But Polonius has set up the occasion of Hamlet having a heart-to-heart talk with his mother.
The two friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, return to where the play had taken place, to
tell Hamlet that his mother wishes to speak with him in her private room. At this point
Hamlet treats the two courtiers as disloyal and untrustworthy friends, since they follow the
king’s orders and have been spying on him. When Polonius returns also, to bid Hamlet to go
to his mother, Hamlet agrees to do so.
Claudius then summons Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, tells them he does not like Hamlet,
and orders them to accompany him to England. They both enthusiastically accept this task.
At this point Claudius, alone in his room, confesses to the murder of his brother, but refuses
to repent since that would mean his giving up the throne and his new wife, since these are
the gains from his crime against his brother.
On his way to his mother’s room Hamlet sees Claudius kneeling, praying. The ghost had
made clear to Hamlet that his murder meant he was deprived of preparing for death, for
confessing and repenting of any wrongdoings he may have committed. Hamlet cannot know
that Claudius has not repented, but he refuses to take the chance of sending Claudius’s soul
to heaven while his own murdered father’s soul must suffer in an unrepentant state in purgatory.
When Hamlet meets his mother she attempts to confront him with his rude behaviour. But
Hamlet is far too angry to concern himself with rudeness, and he accuses her of offending his
dead father. His behaviour frightens his mother and she calls out. Polonius, hiding behind the
curtain, shouts for help and Hamlet, pretending it is a rat, stabs and kills him, thinking it is
the King.
Following this Hamlet confronts his mother with how he sees his father: a perfect husband
and king; and then contrasts this image with “a mildewed ear” that is his uncle, now his
step-father. Hamlet is enraged by his mother’s apparent passion for Claudius, but the ghost
appears once again, to remind Hamlet to focus on Claudius and to leave his mother
unharmed. So Hamlet tells his mother to “repent what’s past”. Whatever wrongdoing she is
guilty of, she cannot continue to reap the rewards of past crimes or sins. Thus Hamlet urges
her to at least not act the part of Claudius’ wife and lover. Hamlet also asks Gertrude not to
reveal to Claudius that he is only pretending to be mad.
Act 4
“And so have I a noble father lost;
A sister driven into desperate terms,
Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections. But my revenge will come.”
Hamlet is sent to England, but he discovers the secret
orders that he be killed on arrival. He forges new
orders, sealing it with his Princely ring, that
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern be killed on arrival.
With the help of pirates Hamlet returns to Denmark.
In the meantime Ophelia, having lost both her
beloved Hamlet (to madness) and her father (murdered by Hamlet), sinks into madness herself and is
found drowned, perhaps an act of suicide. Ophelia’s
brother, Laertes returns from France desperate to
avenge the murder of his father.
Like Hamlet, Laertes wants revenge, but unlike Hamlet, Laertes wants immediately to kill his
father’s murderer. In this regard Laertes and Hamlet are character foils: Hamlet broods over
the moral nature of revenge and of the fate of his soul; Laertes says, “Conscience and grace
to the profoundest pit! / I dare damnation.” Laertes’s desires give insight into the reasons
why Hamlet cannot act as a cold-blooded killer. Claudius is able to cool Laertes down enough
to agree to a fencing match with Hamlet. The two rig the match so that Hamlet will be poisoned.
Act 5
“In thee there is not half an hour of life.
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenomed. The foul practice
Hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie,
Never to rise again. Thy mother’s poisoned.
I can no more. The King, the King’s to blame.”
The plan is to have poison on the tip of Laertes’s
sword so that a slight wound on Hamlet will be
fatal. Also, Claudius puts poison in Hamlet’s
wine cup. During the swordplay Hamlet proves
to be more skilled, so Laertes is not able to
touch him with his sword. Despite Claudius’s
protests, Gertrude takes a drink from Hamlet’s
poisoned cup. Laertes wounds Hamlet after the
bout is called, so Hamlet grapples with him and
ends up wounding Laertes with the poisoned
swords also.
The Queen falls, and in her dying moments says the wine is poisoned. Laertes falls and then
reveals the scheme of poisoned swords, declaring Hamlet is about to die also, and the King is
to blame. Hamlet stabs Claudius and forces him to drink the poisoned wine.
Finally, as he is dying, Hamlet tells Horatio that Fortinbras, who is passing through Denmark
at that time on his way to Poland, should be the chosen as the new king. The play ends with
Fortinbras commanding a soldier’s funeral for Prince Hamlet.