Alone, Claudius discloses that he is actually sending Hamlet to his death. A second attempt on Claudius' life ends in Polonius' accidental death.Ĭlaudius, now fearing for his life, sends Hamlet to England, accompanied (and closely watched) by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He follows Claudius into his chambers in order to kill him, but stops when he sees his uncle praying he does not want to kill Claudius while he is in a state of grace because Hamlet wants Claudius to suffer in purgatory and Claudius has just attempted to cleanse his sin through confession. When Claudius leaves the on stage "audience" deeply upset, Hamlet knows that the ghost was telling the truth.
Claudius demands the play be stopped half through because it causes him to experience guilt. Hamlet devises a test to see whether Claudius is guilty: he hires a group of actors to perform a play about the murder of a king in front of the royal court, and has Horatio gauge Claudius' reaction. Ophelia greets him, and offers to return his remembrances (tokens of his love interest), upon which Hamlet questions her honesty and tells her to "get thee to a nunnery" (a suggestion of either erotic criticism of hypersexuality, or of escape from the Danish succession crisis that will become bloody.) Hamlet enters, contemplating suicide (" To be, or not to be"). Claudius and his advisor Polonius persuade Ophelia-Polonius' daughter and Hamlet's love interest-to speak with Hamlet while they secretly listen. One night, his father's ghost appears to him and tells him that Claudius murdered him in order to usurp the throne, and commands his son to avenge his death.Ĭlaudius sends for two of Hamlet's friends from Wittenberg, to find out what is causing Hamlet so much pain. The play opens with Hamlet deeply depressed over the recent death of his father, King Hamlet, and his uncle Claudius' ascension to the throne and hasty marriage to Hamlet's mother Gertrude. A statue of Hamlet with Yorick in Stratford-upon-Avon
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