Hamlet by William Shakespeare Summary: Revenge, Madness & Betrayal
TL:DR: Hamlet Quick Summary
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare is a five-act Elizabethan revenge tragedy set in the cold, ominous halls of Castle Elsinore.
The play follows Prince Hamlet as he grieves his father’s sudden death and confronts his mother’s hasty remarriage to his uncle, the new King Claudius.
After the sudden death of King Hamlet of Denmark, his son Prince Hamlet returns from university to find his uncle Claudius already crowned and married to his mother, Queen Gertrude.
The ghost of the dead king appears on the castle battlements and claims that Claudius murdered him by pouring poison into his ear.
The ghost commands Hamlet to seek revenge.
Hamlet feigns madness to obscure his intentions while investigating the truth, setting in motion a chain of events involving court spies, a theatrical performance, accidental killings, and a final deadly duel that claims the lives of nearly everyone involved.
Hamlet Summary: Plot and Ending
Spoiler Warning: This section reveals the full plot and ending of the play.
Act I: The Ghost’s Revelation
The play opens on a freezing night at Castle Elsinore, where sentinels Barnardo and Francisco stand watch. Marcellus and Horatio, a scholar and friend to Prince Hamlet, join them on the platform terrace.
The guards explain that a supernatural apparition resembling the dead King Hamlet has appeared twice before.
The Ghost re-emerges, and Horatio notes that it wears the same armor the late king wore when defeating King Fortinbras of Norway.
Horatio warns that Denmark is preparing for war because young Fortinbras of Norway has gathered an army to reclaim lands lost by his father. Horatio resolves to inform Prince Hamlet of the vision.
In the royal audience chamber, King Claudius and Queen Gertrude address the court.
Claudius dispatches ambassadors Voltemand and Cornelius to Norway to address Fortinbras’s military preparations.
Claudius then grants Laertes, son of the lord chamberlain Polonius, permission to return to his studies in France.
Turning to Prince Hamlet, who remains dressed in black mourning clothes, Claudius and Gertrude urge him to cast off his grief. Left alone, Hamlet reveals his inner torment in a soliloquy, expressing despair over his father’s death and disgust at his mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle within a month of the funeral.
Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo enter and report their encounter with his father’s ghost, prompting Hamlet to join their watch that evening.
Before departing for France, Laertes warns his sister Ophelia that Hamlet’s romantic affections are fleeting and that as prince, his choice of marriage depends on the state. Polonius offers Laertes moral precepts for his behavior abroad and subsequently commands Ophelia to refuse Hamlet’s letters and visits.
That night on the platform, as Claudius holds a drunken celebration within the castle, the Ghost appears to Hamlet and beckons him away.
Alone with Hamlet, the Ghost reveals that King Hamlet did not die from a snakebite while sleeping in his orchard as reported, but was murdered by Claudius, who poured poison into his ear.
The Ghost commands Hamlet to avenge his foul and unnatural murder, though he warns him not to harm Gertrude. Returning to Horatio and Marcellus, Hamlet swears them to secrecy regarding the apparition and announces his intention to adopt an “antic disposition” or feigned madness.
Act II: Spying and the Players’ Arrival
Time passes, and Polonius dispatches his servant Reynaldo to Paris to spy on Laertes’s conduct. A frightened Ophelia reports to her father that Hamlet entered her chamber dishevelled, pale, and trembling, staring in total silence before leaving.
Polonius concludes that Hamlet has been driven mad by Ophelia’s rejection of his love and decides to inform the King.
Claudius and Gertrude welcome Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two childhood schoolfellows of Hamlet, asking them to spend time with the prince and secretly report the cause of his mental disturbance.
Voltemand and Cornelius return from Norway with news that the Norwegian king halted Fortinbras’s attack on Denmark, redirecting his army against Poland with permission to pass through Danish territory.
Polonius then presents Hamlet’s passionate love letter to Ophelia to the King and Queen. To test his theory, Polonius proposes that he and Claudius hide behind a tapestry while arranging a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia.
Hamlet enters reading a book and engages Polonius in a series of riddling, satirical insults. When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern approach, Hamlet greets them warmly but quickly forces them to admit that they were sent by Claudius and Gertrude to monitor him.
Read the Full Dramatic Structure Summary of Hamlet by William Shakespeare
A troupe of travelling actors, the Players, arrives at Elsinore. Hamlet welcomes them and listens as the First Player delivers a dramatic speech describing the fall of Troy and the grief of Queen Hecuba. Alone once more, Hamlet berates himself in a soliloquy for failing to act on his father’s murder while an actor cries over fictional grief.
He devises a plan to have the Players perform The Murder of Gonzago before the court, inserting extra lines to mimic his father’s murder, thereby observing Claudius’s reaction to confirm the Ghost’s honesty.
Act III: The Mousetrap and Polonius’s Death
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern inform Claudius and Gertrude that Hamlet welcomed the arrival of the Players. Claudius and Polonius then instruct Ophelia to stand in the lobby holding a prayer book while they conceal themselves behind the arras.
Hamlet enters contemplating life, death, and suicide in the famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy. When Ophelia attempts to return his past gifts, Hamlet angrily denies giving her anything, commands her to “Get thee to a nunnery,” denounces marriage, and harshly criticizes women’s vanity.
Watching from cover, Claudius realizes Hamlet’s condition is not caused by unrequited love but an underlying threat, deciding to send Hamlet to England to demand neglected tribute.
Polonius suggests one further attempt at eavesdropping in Queen Gertrude’s private chamber after the play.
Before the performance, Hamlet instructs the Players on dramatic restraint and moderation. He confides in Horatio, asking him to watch Claudius’s face closely during the murder scene. The court gathers for the play.
After a silent dumb-show, the actors portray King Gonzago and Queen Baptista.
The villain, Lucianus, enters and pours poison into the sleeping king’s ear to usurp his crown. Upon seeing this, Claudius abruptly rises, calls for light, and halts the performance.
The court scatters, leaving Hamlet and Horatio, who agree that Claudius’s reaction confirms the Ghost’s revelation.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern return to inform Hamlet that his mother is distressed and wishes to see him in her closet. Hamlet rebukes his schoolfellows for attempting to play upon him like a pipe.
Meanwhile, Claudius orders Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to prepare for Hamlet’s immediate voyage to England.
Left alone, Claudius kneels in prayer, expressing torment over his brother’s murder but admitting he cannot receive forgiveness while retaining his crown, ambition, and queen.
Hamlet enters and finds Claudius kneeling defenseless; he draws his sword but refrains from striking, reasoning that killing Claudius during prayer might send his soul to heaven, whereas he wishes to kill him while engaged in sin.
Hamlet enters Gertrude’s chamber. Polonius hides behind the arras to listen. Hamlet confronts his mother aggressively regarding her marriage.
Fearing for her safety, Gertrude cries for help, and Polonius calls out from behind the curtain. Believing the hidden figure to be the King, Hamlet draws his rapier and stabs through the tapestry, killing Polonius.
Discovering his mistake, Hamlet berates Gertrude for exchanging his noble father for a corrupt murderer. The Ghost re-appears to remind Hamlet of his unfulfilled vengeance.
Because Gertrude cannot see or hear the Ghost, she becomes convinced Hamlet is mad. Hamlet urges his mother to repent, confirms that his madness is only feigned, and drags Polonius’s corpse out of the room.
Act IV: Exile, Madness, and Conspiracy
Gertrude reports Polonius’s death to Claudius. The King dispatches Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to retrieve the body and bring Hamlet before him.
Hamlet hides the body and mocks Rosencrantz as a sponge that soaks up the King’s favors.
Brought before Claudius, Hamlet speaks in riddles about Polonius before revealing that the body is near the stairs in the lobby.
Claudius informs Hamlet that he must depart immediately for England. Once alone, Claudius discloses sealed letters instructing the English king to execute Hamlet upon arrival.
On the Danish coast, Hamlet encounters a captain from Fortinbras’s army marching toward Poland to fight over a small, worthless piece of land.
Strikingly moved by their willingness to risk life for honor, Hamlet delivers a soliloquy resolving to dedicate his thoughts entirely to bloody revenge.
At Elsinore, Ophelia suffers a severe mental breakdown following her father’s death, wandering the court singing disturbed songs. Laertes secretly returns from France in a fury, leading an armed mob that storms the palace demanding vengeance for his father.
Claudius manages to calm Laertes, assuring him that he had no part in Polonius’s death and promising justice.
Horatio receives a letter from seafaring sailors sent by Hamlet. The letter explains that two days out at sea, Hamlet’s ship was boarded by pirates.
Hamlet escaped onto the pirate vessel alone as a prisoner of mercy and has been brought back to Denmark, while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern continue toward England.
Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet killed Polonius. Messenger letters arrive announcing Hamlet’s unexpected return. Claudius devises a plan to eliminate Hamlet without raising suspicion. Laertes will challenge Hamlet to a fencing match using an unbated, sharp rapier coated with deadly poison.
As a backup, Claudius will prepare a poisoned cup of wine to offer Hamlet during the match.
Gertrude enters with news that Ophelia has drowned in a stream after falling from a willow tree.
Act V: The Graveyard and the Fatal Duel
In a churchyard, two Gravediggers prepare a grave, debating whether Ophelia should receive Christian burial given the mysterious circumstances of her death. Hamlet and Horatio enter and observe.
Hamlet banteringly questions the First Gravedigger and holds the skull of Yorick, the former king’s jester, meditating on the vanity of human ambition and the inevitability of physical decay.
Ophelia’s funeral procession enters, including Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, and a Priest. Overcome with grief, Laertes leaps into his sister’s open grave.
Stepping forward, Hamlet confronts Laertes and grapples with him, declaring that his love for Ophelia surpassed that of forty thousand brothers. Attendants separate them, and Claudius reminds Laertes to remain patient for their planned duel.
At the palace, Hamlet explains to Horatio how he discovered Claudius’s execution order aboard the English ship, replaced it with a forged letter commanding the immediate execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and sealed it with his father’s signet ring.
Osric, an eccentric courtier, enters to invite Hamlet to the fencing match with Laertes, announcing that the King has placed a heavy wager on Hamlet.
Despite experiencing a sinister feeling around his heart, Hamlet accepts the challenge, noting that “the readiness is all.”
Before the court, Hamlet offers a public apology to Laertes, attributing his past actions to madness. The fencing match begins. Hamlet scores the first two hits.
Gertrude toasts Hamlet’s success and drinks from the poisoned cup before Claudius can stop her.
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Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned rapier. In the ensuing scuffle, the weapons are exchanged, and Hamlet wounds Laertes with the same poisoned blade.
Gertrude collapses and dies, warning Hamlet that she was poisoned. Laertes falls and confesses the entire plot, revealing that the weapon was envenomed and that the King is to blame.
Enraged, Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned point and forces him to drink the remaining poisoned wine, killing him.
Laertes asks for mutual forgiveness and dies. Dying, Hamlet prevents Horatio from drinking poison to join him, entrusting Horatio to report the truth.
Hearing Fortinbras’s warlike volley upon returning from Poland, Hamlet declares his vote for Fortinbras to be the next King of Denmark and dies with the words “The rest is silence.”
Fortinbras and English Ambassadors enter, reporting that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been executed in England. Horatio promises to recount the tragic events to the court.
Fortinbras claims his rights to the Danish kingdom and orders four captains to bear Prince Hamlet like a soldier, according him full military honors.
Characters in Hamlet
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Hamlet, Prince of Denmark | Son of the late King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude; nephew and step-son to Claudius. He feigns madness while seeking to avenge his father’s murder. |
| Claudius, King of Denmark | Hamlet’s uncle who secretly murdered King Hamlet, married Gertrude, and seized the crown. |
| Gertrude, Queen of Denmark | Hamlet’s mother and widow of King Hamlet, now married to Claudius. |
| Ghost of Hamlet’s Father | The spirit of the deceased former King of Denmark who reveals his murder and commands Hamlet to avenge him. |
| Polonius | Lord Chamberlain and chief counsellor to Claudius; father of Laertes and Ophelia. |
| Laertes | Son of Polonius and brother to Ophelia; he seeks revenge for his father’s death. |
| Ophelia | Daughter of Polonius and sister of Laertes; beloved by Hamlet. She suffers a mental breakdown after her father’s death and drowns. |
| Horatio | Hamlet’s loyal friend and fellow-student from the University of Wittenberg. |
| Rosencrantz and Guildenstern | Former schoolfellows of Hamlet recruited by Claudius to spy on him. |
| Fortinbras | Prince of Norway; son of old King Fortinbras. He leads an army across Denmark and ultimately assumes the Danish throne. |
| Marcellus, Barnardo, and Francisco | Officers and sentinels of the Danish watch at Elsinore. |
| Voltemand and Cornelius | Danish ambassadors dispatched to Norway. |
| Reynaldo | Servant to Polonius sent to Paris to monitor Laertes. |
| Osric, Lord, and Gentleman | Courtiers at the Danish court; Osric delivers the fencing match invitation to Hamlet. |
| First Clown (Gravedigger and Sexton) and Second Clown | Gravediggers in Elsinore who dig Ophelia’s grave. |
| First Player and Other Players | A troupe of travelling actors who perform The Murder of Gonzago at court. |
| Captain in the Norwegian Army | An officer serving under Prince Fortinbras who encounters Hamlet on the Danish coast. |
| Sailor, Messenger, Priest, and English Ambassador | Minor figures assisting with news, religious rites, and official messages. |
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Themes Presented in Hamlet
| Theme | How It Appears in the Play |
|---|---|
| Revenge and Retaliation | The Ghost commands Hamlet to avenge his murder. Laertes leads an armed rebellion and plots to kill Hamlet in a rigged duel to avenge Polonius. Fortinbras initially seeks to reclaim lost lands. |
| Mortality, Death, and Physical Decay | The Ghost’s appearance, Hamlet’s soliloquies on suicide and existence, the Gravedigger handling skulls including Yorick’s, and the final deaths of the royal court all emphasize death’s inevitability. |
| Deception, Spying, and Treachery | Claudius hides his fratricide, Polonius frequently eavesdrops behind tapestries, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern act as royal spies, and the fencing match uses a poisoned rapier and chalice. |
| Madness and Feigned Madness | Hamlet adopts an “antic disposition” to obscure his motives, while Ophelia suffers genuine insanity following her father’s death. |
| Royal Succession and Duty to the State | The political transition after King Hamlet’s death, Denmark’s military mobilization, and the eventual transfer of the Danish crown to Fortinbras. |
Quotes from Hamlet
“A little more than kin, and less than kind.”
— Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2
“Seems madam? nay it is, I know not seems.”
— Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2
“Frailty, thy name is woman!”
— Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2
“Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.”
— Ghost, Act 1, Scene 5
“O my prophetic soul! My uncle?”
— Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5
“To be, or not to be, that is the question –”
— Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1
“Get thee to a nunnery – why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?”
— Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1
“The lady doth protest too much methinks.”
— Gertrude, Act 3, Scene 2
Plays Like Hamlet
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
This Roman tragedy explores a philosopher-hero’s commitment to violent political action, featuring a ghost and the downfall of a leader. It shares themes of betrayal, moral dilemma, and the consequences of revenge.
The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd
An Elizabethan revenge play sharing the setting of a renaissance court, a ghost calling for revenge, and escalating retaliatory violence. It is considered a foundational work of the revenge tragedy genre.
Horestes by John Pickering (1567)
This early revenge drama examines the relationship between divine will, retaliatory violence, and the pursuit of justice. It represents the tradition from which Hamlet emerged.
Antonio’s Revenge by John Marston
A contemporary revenge play with strong parallels to Hamlet, including the ghost of a poisoned father appearing to demand vengeance. It shares themes of madness, theatrical performance, and court corruption.
About William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English playwright, poet, and actor widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language.
He wrote approximately 39 plays, including tragedies such as King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello, as well as comedies and histories.
His works have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Explore more summaries of Shakespeare’s plays on URSummary.
About Hamlet
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Benediction Classics |
| Publication Date | November 4, 2017 |
| Language | English |
| Print Length | 136 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1781398682 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1781398685 |
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