Plot Summary of Hamlet by Shakespeare

HAMLET

I.1 Guards see the ghost of former King.

Audience sees evidence that something is wrong.

I.2 King+Queen let Laertes go to France and counsel Hamlet to get over his father's death and to not return to school. King tells H that he is next in line to the throne. H is troubled by how quick K+Q married after his father's funeral. Guards arrive to tell H about the ghost. H agrees to watch for ghost w/them later.

Killer whose guilt is not known tries to get concerned party to get over it.
Concerned party of a killing enters path of discovery.
Audience learns of character's departure.

I.3 Laertes counsels his sister Ophelia to differentiate between desire and love in her dealings with Hamlet. Polonius instructs O to set her prices higher from now on when dealing with Hamlet, since H's promises and affections are most likely used only to get sex. She should look for more of a committment, he tells her.

Audience learns of 2 important relationships.

I.4 Hamlet and guards wait for the ghost, which appears and gestures for H to follow. Guards warn H that the guost might be a demon in disguise, but H follows. H threatens guards to not follow.

Concerned party of a killing continues path of discovery.

(ghost encounter continued:)

I.5 Hamlet demands that the ghost stop and speak; it does, identifies itself as his father, describes his murder and his predicament in the afterlife, and tells H that H must kill K in order to rectify the situation, asking him to swear that he will do it. Guards enter as the ghost disappears; they seek info, but H will not tell and H makes them swear their silence on the matter. The ghost then bellows out "swear" a few times and it's not apparent that guards hear this, but they do swear.

Concerned party of a killing finishes path to discovery of who is murderer.
Concerned party of a killing swears to get revenge for the dead.

II.1 Polonius sends someone to give funds to Laertes, as well as to both find out w/whom he is hanging out in France, and to spread a few minor rumors about L so as to drive him away from there. Ophelia reports that H came to her pale and severely disturbed, and that H then left her. P incorrectly infers that this event was cause by O's playing hard to get, and tells O of this theory.

Audience (& character) see evidence that Concerned Party has begun on the path to revenge. (To character it is mysterious.)
Audience learns of character's return.

II.2 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, are greeted by K+Q amicably and are asked to stay in Elsinore awhile. P arrives and offers his theory of H's strange behavior. Ambassadors arrives and K allows them to interrupt P and tell K about the Norwegians and Fortinbras. P reads aloud a letter from H to O, then explains the series of events leading to O's recent experience w/H. P proposes that K+Polonius secretly observe a forced encounter between O and H, wherein H's love for O will be tested. H enters, and P tries to talk with him, but H mocks him. R+G arrive and try to cheer up H, but H immediately asks why they are here and who sent for them; they admit it was K+Q's doing. Then when H is about to get angry, R+G announce the arrival of players (P arrives also) who then put on a piece. H asks the players if they will put on a play of H's design tomorrow night; they accept the assignment. H, troubled by his own inaction and overpensiveness, decides he will use the play to confirm K's guilt.

Audience learns of a desire to ascertain H's desire for O, which is also a step in K's process of removing/killing H.
Audience learns of H's desire to ascertain K's guilt. Thus Concerned Party enters the path of confirmation of guilt via his plan to trick K.

III.1 K interrogates R+G to find out what is causing H's "madness". H laments. K+P watch as H rejects O. P suggests to K that he let Q try to sway H, and that if that doesn't work, that K should send H to England.

K pretends to be innocent and unknowing.
Concerned Party rejects vulnerable loved-one to protect her.
K makes another step in the process of removing/killing H.

III.2 H instructs players on how to act.
H tells R+G to help the players.
H tells Horatio to watch K's face during the play.
H talks a bit w/Ophelia before the play, venting his anger by jesting with her.
Play occurs: brother of a king kills the king, takes queen as wife. Ophelia asks what it's about.
Play continues, ends. K et al want an explanation; H says it's about events in Vienna. K suddenly needs light/air, as if going into shock. K exits, P+Q+R+G follow.
R+G come back, tell H that K is very angry and that Q wants to speak w/H.
H, tired of R+G, demands to know why they seem to think they can manipulate him; H threatens them in soft, cryptic terms.
P arrives and asks H to go speak with Q; H agrees to.

K continues to pretend to be innocent, which in the face of a public accusation requires an engry reaction.
Concerned Party and friend Horatio see proof the K's guilt. Thus Concerned Party finishes the path of confirmation of guilt via his plan to trick K.

III.3 King tells R+G that he will have them take H to England. R+G agree that H is a source of trouble and thereby accept the assignment.
P tells K that H will go to see Q.
K starts praying. H enters, sees K praying, but decides that he will not kill K now, thinking/fearing that to kill him while he is praying will send him to heaven. H also feels that to kill K now would not be a sufficiently losing revenge. So, H leaves. K gives up praying, saying that it was insincere.

Audience learns that K only fakes piousness.
Audience learns that K will kill again to protect himself from Concerned Party of the killing. Therefore audience deduces K is evil.

III.4 H goes to speak with Q, and right away expresses his anger, which causes P, who is hiding, to say something. H hears, and stabs the spying P, who falls and H+Q see him. H then makes a long and confusing speech to Q.
Ghost appears, counsels H, but Q does not see the ghost and thinks H mad.
H orders Q to keep away from K tonight, as if H planned on slaying K in bed.
H tells Q he agrees to go to England.
H drags P's body away.

Aud observes the destructive influence of the situation on H, who is weak but bold. He has become paranoid and reckless. This is a step in K's expulsion of H.
Tragedy, downfall for Concerned Party H.

IV.1 K inquires as to why Q seems upset.
Q tells K that H killed P.
K reflects that H should have been more strongly controlled.
K announces a promise that H will soon be sent away.
K gets the idea of spreading the word about H's act of killing. Here K begins his use of H's mistake in the effort to get rid of H.

K reaps an unexpected benefit in his effort to expel H. to H's Concerned Party i.e. Q.
K makes another step in expelling H, namely announcing the plan to H's Concerned Party i.e. Q.

IV.2 H hides P's body.
R+G come to get H, and P's body.
H insults them, refuses to give the body, but goes with them.

K makes another step in expelling H, namely the formal summoning of H to tell him.

IV.3 K reflects to himself that H is well loved by the people because of his looks, but that H's crime of killing P must be punished. His own crime somehow doesn't occur to him presently.
R+G arrive with H, says that H did not tell them where the body is, which H confirms.
K sends H to England, and H does not put up a fuss. K tells R+G to make sure that H gets on the boat.

The audience is given confirmation of K's true intent, to kill H.
K makes another step in expelling H, namely the formal order to leave.

IV.4 Fortinbras arrives seeking to cross Denmark.
Hamlet speaks with F's captain, asking who are you.
Hamlet reflects on the beastliness of human existence, or the beastliness in his life anyway.

IV.5 Horatio brings O, but Q doesn't want to see her. Horatio shows her in anyway; O is speaking and singing "nonsense" as if "mad".
K arrives, and O sings/speaks much more nonsense to K, Q, and Horatio.
O leaves; K orders Horatio to follow.
K reflects to O that H is evil and that all is unwell because of him.
Laertes arrives with a mob chanting "Laertes the King"-- he wants blood.
K+Q stop L, deny any guilt, probe to uncover his intentions.
O comes along singing.
L agrees to ally himself with K and pledges to kill H; K+L exit.

L is Concerned Party of P's death, and begins the process of getting revenge on H.
Aud observes the tragedy of the K-H war.
K sabotages H-O relationship, taking advantage of O's sickness.

IV.6 Horatio, who is without O, receives a letter via sailors from H.
In it, H asks Horatio to send the other letters.

Aud learns that H is alive, and that H trusts Horatio.

IV.7 K+L are talking-- L wants to know why K did not act against H, his father's murderer. K explains that Q's and the people's love of H prevented that.

L continues in his revenge, here sizing up who is responsible. Thus this is a step toward discovery.

Messenger brings letters from H-- one for K, one for Q. K reads his, which simply says that H will return. (Q exits.)
K+L agree to kill H when he returns; L volunteers to be the primary killer.

K continues in his attack on H, finding someone else to kill H.
L continues in his revenge, here confirming he will kill the killer.

K claims he heard that a Norman praised L's use of the rapier; this pleases and emboldens L.
K asks L if he loved P, and if so, what would he do as revenge? L says he'll kill the killer.
K invents a plan: L+H will be brought together to fight. L offers to dip is blade in poison.

K presents specific plan to for L to kill H.

K offers to poison H's drink, so that when H gets tired and thirsty, he will drink poison.
Q arrives, announces that O has drowned. L is shocked, and Q explains that O fell in a pond after her flowers fell in, but let herself sink.
L puts off being sorrowful since he wants to focus on revenge; he exits.
K announces to Q that O's death puts his self-control in jeopardy, and they follow L.

K uses O's death as a means of justifying future rash actions.

V.1 Two gravediggers joke around the new grave that will be for Ophelia. One looses a bet and leaves to buy liquor.
H and Horatio arrive, don't introduce themselves, but joke with the diggers: They asks whose grave is this, but are told of the former occupant, the old court jester that H knew. H laments the jester's passing. A funeral procession (L, K, Q, and priest) approaches, so H and Horatio hide.
L, disappointed w/the priest's speech, jumps into O's grave and makes his own. H, devastated by O's death and feeling strangely forgotten and upstaged, jumps in after him and makes his own speech while L tries to grab aggressively at him.
Everyone is yelling, and H, angered by L's aggressiveness, pledges to fight him.

V.2 Hamlet revels in the fighting and grand changes to come.
Hamlet tells Horatio of the letter ordering Hamlet's death, gives it to him.
H explains that he had a royal seal w/him, so he used it to forge a new writ.
When the pirates attacked the ship, H left the forged writ in the original's place.
Horatio balks, but H explains that K killed H's father, K whored his mother, etc.
H says he regrets killing P.
Osric, a favored land-owner, relays a msg from K to H: K has placed a wager on H. Osric praises L in an effort to warn H of L's fighting skills, but finally just says it plainly: L is skilled. H asks what weapons L is good at.
Osric tells him, and tells what L stands to gain if H loses, and what L must do (a few hits here or there) if he will be considered successful. H must accept, and does. Osric goes to relay the msg to K.
A lord comes to find out how much longer H will be, since everyone is assembling; the lord tells H that Q suggests H be friendly to L before they fight.
Horatio tells H that he thinks H will lose; H, suspecting nothing, says he thinks this will be a minor fight, and since he has been practicing, he may even win.
K, Q, L, and everyone else (lords, etc) arrive.
Hamlet announces that he is innocent of killing P, since it was his madness that did it. L says he is satisfied with the use of the fight to solve the situation. H+L take their foils, but L complains that his is too heavy, and take a different one.
K says he'll drink to Hamlet, and is given prepared two cups.
H+L fight, H makes a hit on L; K drinks to H. Queen drinks despite K telling her not to since it is poisoned.
H+L continue, and each is wounded.
Q looks ill, K makes an excuse for it, but Q says she has been poisoned.
H has the doors locked.
L admits that H has been poisoned too.
H kills K.
L asks H for forgiveness, then dies.
H laments his own death, asks Horatio to tell the story of all of this well, he hears the sound of someone arriving, then dies.
The Norwegian Fortinbras arrives with English ambassadors; Horatio prepares to tell them what has happened.

The end.

Plot Summary of Hamlet by Shakespeare

HAMLET

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