Hamlet, mourning for his father’s death, is left alone to vent his despair at what he regards as his mother’s all too hasty marriage to his uncle, Claudius. He gives Laertes permission to return to France but denies Hamlet’s request to return to the university in Wittenberg. After thanking his courtiers for their recent support, he dispatches ambassadors to Norway to halt a threatened attack from Fortinbras. Act 1, scene 2 In an audience chamber in Elsinore, Claudius, the new king of Denmark, holds court.Horatio decides to tell his fellow student, Prince Hamlet, about the Ghost’s appearance. The Ghost, in the form of the late King Hamlet of Denmark, appears but will not speak. Act 1, scene 1 On the guards’ platform at Elsinore, Horatio waits with Barnardo and Marcellus to question a ghost that has twice before appeared.Then first Laertes and then Hamlet die, both victims of Laertes’ rapier.

At the match, Claudius prepares poisoned wine for Hamlet, which Gertrude unknowingly drinks as she dies, she accuses Claudius, whom Hamlet kills. Hamlet, who has returned safely to confront the king, agrees to a fencing match with Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, who secretly poisons his own rapier. Claudius sends Hamlet away as part of a deadly plot.After Polonius’s death, Ophelia goes mad and later drowns. Hamlet, now free to act, mistakenly kills Polonius, thinking he is Claudius. When the councilor Polonius learns from his daughter, Ophelia, that Hamlet has visited her in an apparently distracted state, Polonius attributes the prince’s condition to lovesickness, and he sets a trap for Hamlet using Ophelia as bait.To confirm Claudius’s guilt, Hamlet arranges for a play that mimics the murder Claudius’s reaction is that of a guilty man. When the king of Denmark, Prince Hamlet’s father, suddenly dies, Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, marries his uncle Claudius, who becomes the new king.A spirit who claims to be the ghost of Hamlet’s father describes his murder at the hands of Claudius and demands that Hamlet avenge the killing. Entire Play Events before the start of Hamlet set the stage for tragedy.

Shakespeare william hamlet