Hamlet Study Guide

Characters

• FFranciscoA soldier on guard outside the castle, cold and sick at heart, who leaves when Bernardo relieves him.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• BBernardoA member of the night watch who has seen a figure like the dead king with Marcellus and now witnesses its appearance with Horatio.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• HoratioPrevented by Hamlet from drinking the remaining poison, he survives and offers to explain the deaths to Fortinbras and the assembled audience.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• MMarcellusA watchman who joins Horatio in swearing to keep secret what they have seen and heard that night.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• The GhostThe spirit appears to Hamlet in his mother's room, renews its command and urges him to help his distressed mother, who neither sees nor hears it.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• The KingAfter Laertes exposes his plot, he dies when Hamlet stabs him and forces him to drink the poisoned potion.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• Queen GertrudeShe drinks from the cup intended for Hamlet despite the King's instruction not to drink and dies after telling her son that the drink has poisoned her.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• HamletAfter accepting the match with trust in providence, he is mortally wounded by the poisoned sword, kills the King when Laertes exposes the plot, asks Horatio to tell his story and supports Fortinbras' election before dying.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• PoloniusHiding behind the Queen's wall hanging to overhear Hamlet, he cries for help and is stabbed to death through it by the prince.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• LaertesWounded with his own poisoned weapon after striking Hamlet, he exposes the King's part in the plot and seeks mutual forgiveness with Hamlet before dying.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• VVoltimandThe returning envoy who reports that Norway's king has restrained Fortinbras and now requests passage through Denmark for an expedition against Poland.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• CCorneliusThe envoy who returns from Norway with Voltimand and receives the King's thanks for their work.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• OpheliaHer body is brought for burial with restricted rites because she may have taken her own life, while her brother insists on her innocence.First appears: Act 1, Scene 3
• RReynaldoPolonius' messenger, sent to take money and notes to Laertes and question his acquaintances in Paris, who objects that invented accusations could dishonour him.First appears: Act 2, Scene 1
• RosencrantzThe English ambassador confirms his death after Hamlet describes replacing the royal commission with an order for its bearers to be killed.First appears: Act 2, Scene 2
• GuildensternThe English ambassador reports that he is dead, fulfilling the substituted commission Hamlet says he sent in place of the order for his own execution.First appears: Act 2, Scene 2
• First PlayerAn actor whose speech about Priam and Hecuba brings tears to his eyes, and who agrees to perform The Murder of Gonzago and learn an extra speech that Hamlet proposes to write.First appears: Act 2, Scene 2
• PPrologueA performer who briefly asks the court to hear the tragedy patiently before the Player King and Player Queen enter.First appears: Act 3, Scene 2
• PKPlayer KingThe ruler in the players' performance, identified by Hamlet as Gonzago, who questions the permanence of human promises and is poisoned while sleeping.First appears: Act 3, Scene 2
• PQPlayer QueenThe wife in the players' performance, identified by Hamlet as Baptista, who swears never to marry again if her husband dies.First appears: Act 3, Scene 2
• LLucianusThe murderer in the players' performance, introduced by Hamlet as the king's nephew, who pours poison into the sleeping ruler's ears.First appears: Act 3, Scene 2
• Prince FortinbrasReturning victorious from Poland, he finds the royal family dead, asserts a claim to the kingdom and orders military honours for Hamlet.First appears: Act 4, Scene 4
• CCaptainAn officer sent by Fortinbras to the Danish king, who tells Hamlet that the army aims to take a small, unprofitable piece of Polish land already defended by troops.First appears: Act 4, Scene 4
• GWGentleman with the QueenA gentleman who reports Ophelia's distress and warns that listeners fit her broken speech to their own thoughts.First appears: Act 4, Scene 5
• GRGentleman reporting the risingA second gentleman who warns the King that Laertes is overcoming his officers with a crowd calling for Laertes to be king.First appears: Act 4, Scene 5
• DDanesLaertes' followers, who enter behind him but agree to wait outside the door while he confronts the King.First appears: Act 4, Scene 5
• SServantA servant who tells Horatio that sailors have arrived claiming to carry letters for him.First appears: Act 4, Scene 6
• FSFirst SailorOne of the sailors bringing Hamlet's letters, who hands Horatio a letter from the traveller bound for England.First appears: Act 4, Scene 6
• MMessengerA messenger who delivers Hamlet's letters for the King and Queen, explaining that he received them through Claudio rather than seeing the sailors himself.First appears: Act 4, Scene 7
• First ClownA gravedigger who jokes about the rules of burial, answers Hamlet with verbal tricks and identifies Yorick's skull.First appears: Act 5, Scene 1
• SCSecond ClownThe First Clown's companion, who says that the dead woman's rank has secured Christian burial and leaves to fetch drink.First appears: Act 5, Scene 1
• FPFirst PriestThe priest who refuses further funeral rites for Ophelia because she may have taken her own life, saying that powerful intervention has already enlarged the ceremony.First appears: Act 5, Scene 1
• OsricA courtier who brings the King's fencing wager to Hamlet in elaborate language, judges the hits and announces Fortinbras' arrival from Poland.First appears: Act 5, Scene 2
• LLordA lord who checks Hamlet's readiness for the fencing match and conveys the Queen's request that he greet Laertes courteously before they begin.First appears: Act 5, Scene 2
• FAFirst AmbassadorAn envoy from England who arrives after the King's death and reports that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been killed in obedience to the command received there.First appears: Act 5, Scene 2

Chapter summaries

1. Act 1, Scene 1

   The opening challenges between sentries establish a cold, uneasy night outside the castle. Marcellus has brought the sceptical Horatio to witness a figure that he and Bernardo have already seen twice. The Ghost interrupts Bernardo's account, and Horatio's disbelief gives way to fear when he recognises the dead king's appearance and armour. Asked about Denmark's military preparations, Horatio reports that young Fortinbras is gathering men to recover lands his father lost to the dead king in combat. Horatio interprets the apparition as a possible warning to the state, but neither his questions nor the men's attempt to stop it produces an explanation. As dawn approaches, he proposes telling young Hamlet, believing the silent spirit will speak to him.

2. Act 1, Scene 2

   Before the assembled court, the King presents mourning for his brother and celebration of his marriage as feelings that can be balanced. He sends Cornelius and Voltimand to ask Norway's king to restrain Fortinbras, then grants Laertes permission to return to France. Hamlet's aside reveals hostility beneath this public ceremony, while his speech to his mother distinguishes inward grief from outward signs that anyone could perform. The King calls persistent mourning unmanly and urges Hamlet to treat him as a father and remain at court. Hamlet agrees to his mother's request to stay, but his soliloquy reveals a wish to escape life, restrained by God's prohibition of suicide, and disgust at her swift marriage to his uncle. When Horatio, Marcellus and Bernardo describe the Ghost, Hamlet questions them closely and resolves to speak to it in secret, suspecting foul play.

3. Act 1, Scene 3

   Preparing to depart, Laertes tells Ophelia to treat Hamlet's affection as something youthful and temporary. He argues that a prince's marriage cannot depend on private desire because the safety of the state depends on his choice. His concern for Ophelia's chastity and reputation presents fear as her best protection, but she challenges him to observe the restraint he recommends. Polonius blesses Laertes and gives him a long series of rules about friendship, speech, clothing, quarrels and money. After Laertes leaves, Polonius dismisses Ophelia's account of Hamlet's vows, comparing them to false payment and traps. His command that she stop speaking to Hamlet, and her promise to obey, show how little freedom she has to test her own judgement.

4. Act 1, Scene 4

   On the cold platform, Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus hear trumpets and cannon accompanying the King's drinking. Hamlet argues that this custom damages Denmark's reputation, then considers how one fault can spoil the judgement of a person's other qualities. When the Ghost appears, Hamlet addresses it as his father while openly questioning whether it comes from heaven or hell. It beckons without answering, and Horatio warns that it might lure Hamlet towards danger or take a form that destroys his reason. Hamlet says he values his life little, asserts that his immortal soul cannot be harmed by it, and threatens anyone who prevents him from following. Left behind, Marcellus calls Denmark rotten, and the two companions follow rather than leave Hamlet alone.

5. Act 1, Scene 5

   Alone with Hamlet, the Ghost describes itself as his father's spirit, condemned to suffer in fire until its earthly sins are purged. It says the story of a fatal snakebite is false and accuses Hamlet's uncle of pouring poison into its ears during an afternoon sleep. The Ghost stresses that death came without spiritual preparation and orders revenge, while forbidding Hamlet to plot against his mother. After it leaves, Hamlet vows to make its command his overriding concern and writes down the thought that a smiling man can be a villain. When Horatio and Marcellus arrive, Hamlet speaks evasively and refuses to tell them what passed between him and the Ghost. With the Ghost calling from below, the men swear to conceal the night's events and give no hint of knowledge if Hamlet chooses to adopt strange behaviour. Hamlet's closing complaint presents the task of putting things right as a burden forced upon him.

6. Act 2, Scene 1

   At his house, Polonius instructs Reynaldo to question Danes in Paris before visiting Laertes. He recommends pretending to know Laertes slightly and inventing minor faults to draw out accounts of his behaviour. Reynaldo worries about damage to Laertes' reputation, but Polonius presents deception as a clever means of finding truth. After Reynaldo leaves, Ophelia arrives frightened and describes Hamlet's disordered clothing, trembling knees and silent examination of her face. Hamlet does not appear on stage, and his earlier suggestion that he might adopt strange behaviour leaves his intentions uncertain. Ophelia confirms that she has refused his letters and access as ordered, and Polonius now blames rejected love instead of doubting Hamlet's seriousness. He decides to take her to the King, turning his interpretation of a private encounter into court business.

7. Act 2, Scene 2

   The King and Queen enlist Hamlet's childhood friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to entertain him and discover the cause of his changed behaviour. Voltimand and Cornelius return with news that Fortinbras has vowed not to attack Denmark and with Norway's king's request for Fortinbras' troops to pass through Danish territory to fight Poland. Polonius reads Hamlet's love letter to the royal couple and proposes that he and the King secretly watch an encounter with Ophelia to test his theory of rejected love. Left with Hamlet, Polonius interprets his pointed jokes as madness, though his asides acknowledge meaning in the replies. Hamlet then makes his old friends admit they were summoned and describes losing all pleasure in the world and humanity, before welcoming the visiting players. The First Player's account of Priam's killing and Hecuba's grief moves the actor to tears, prompting Hamlet, once alone, to condemn his own failure to act for his father. His closing soliloquy turns self-accusation into a plan to observe the King's response to a staged murder, because he fears the Ghost may be a devil exploiting his melancholy.

8. Act 3, Scene 1

   Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report little success in discovering Hamlet's troubles, but say the players have pleased him. The King and Polonius arrange to overhear his encounter with Ophelia, and the King's aside reveals a conscience hurt by the gap between his words and his deed. Hamlet's meditation weighs suffering in life against the uncertainty of what follows death, connecting thought with the failure to act. When Ophelia offers to return his gifts, he contradicts his own admission that he once loved her and attacks human sinfulness, women's behaviour and marriage. The audience knows her father is listening when she tells Hamlet that he is at home. After Hamlet leaves, Ophelia describes his reason through an image of bells out of tune, treating his cruelty as evidence of a ruined mind. The King instead rejects the explanation of love and doubts the appearance of madness, deciding on England while Polonius proposes another secret hearing with the Queen.

9. Act 3, Scene 2

   Hamlet tells the players to act with restraint and make their speech and movement reflect nature. In private he praises Horatio's balanced judgement, explains the test and asks him to watch his uncle during the murder scene. Before the assembled court, Hamlet makes sexual jokes to Ophelia and bitter comments about his mother's cheerfulness. A silent show presents poisoning and the widow's acceptance of the poisoner's love, followed by spoken scenes in which a wife vows never to remarry and Lucianus poisons the sleeping ruler. The King rises and calls for light, ending the performance, and Horatio confirms that he noticed the response to the poisoning which convinces Hamlet to trust the Ghost. When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern bring his mother's summons and question him, Hamlet uses a recorder to accuse them of trying to manipulate him. Alone at the end, he describes a violent mood but resolves to use verbal cruelty against his mother without physically harming her.

10. Act 3, Scene 3

    The King treats Hamlet as a threat to his safety and orders Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to take him to England. They justify obedience by arguing that many lives depend on a ruler's security, and Polonius then reports his plan to hide behind the Queen's wall hanging. Left alone, the King directly admits his brother's murder and asks whether forgiveness is possible while he keeps its rewards. He contrasts earthly justice, which the gains of crime can buy off, with divine judgement, where concealment is impossible. Hamlet enters after the King kneels and assumes that killing him at prayer would send his soul to heaven. Wanting damnation as well as death, Hamlet puts away his sword and leaves for his mother's room. The King's closing admission that his thoughts have not followed his words creates dramatic irony: the audience knows the prayer has failed, while Hamlet has acted on its appearance.

11. Act 3, Scene 4

    Polonius hides behind the wall hanging before Hamlet enters his mother's room, and their exchange quickly becomes a contest over which father has been offended. Frightened that Hamlet will murder her, the Queen cries for help; Polonius echoes her, and Hamlet stabs through the hanging before asking whether he has killed the King. Discovering Polonius, Hamlet rebukes his intrusion and continues his attack on his mother's marriage, contrasting pictures of the two brothers until she admits seeing corruption in her soul. The Ghost enters, reminds Hamlet of his neglected purpose and directs his attention to his mother's distress. She sees and hears nothing of the apparition and calls it a product of Hamlet's mind, while he rejects her explanation of madness. Hamlet urges repentance and abstinence from his uncle's bed, expresses regret for Polonius' death while presenting himself as heaven's instrument, and tells his mother his madness is a tactic. She promises to keep his words secret, and Hamlet voices distrust of the schoolfellows carrying the sealed instructions for England before dragging Polonius' body away.

12. Act 4, Scene 1

    After asking Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to leave, the Queen describes Hamlet's killing of the hidden Polonius as an act of madness. She says he has taken away the body and is weeping over what he has done. The King immediately imagines that he would have been killed had he been in Polonius' place. He fears blame for failing to restrain Hamlet and compares his earlier concealment of the problem to allowing a hidden disease to spread. He recalls Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, orders them to bring the body to the chapel and plans Hamlet's departure at dawn. His closing image of slander as a poisoned shot makes the management of royal reputation central to his response to the killing.

13. Act 4, Scene 2

    Hamlet announces that the body is safely stowed before Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive to question him. Asked what he has done with it, he answers with an image of the body's kinship with dust. He calls Rosencrantz a sponge that absorbs the King's favour, rewards and authority until the King chooses to squeeze it dry. The comparison attacks the dependence of royal servants and turns the questioning back on the questioners. Hamlet's riddling language about the king and the body continues to withhold a clear answer. He finally agrees to go to the King, ending with words that turn the pursuit into a game.

14. Act 4, Scene 3

    The King says Hamlet's popularity prevents open use of the law against him and insists that his sudden removal must appear carefully considered. Rosencrantz reports that Hamlet is guarded outside but has not disclosed where the body lies. Brought in with Guildenstern, Hamlet describes worms feeding on Polonius and imagines a dead king passing through a beggar's body. These grotesque jokes reduce political rank to the shared physical fate of all bodies. Hamlet finally directs the search towards the lobby stairs, and the King presents immediate departure for England as a measure for Hamlet's own safety. After Hamlet and his escorts leave, the King's speech reveals that letters sent to England order Hamlet's immediate death. His image of Hamlet as a fever makes murder sound like a cure for his own danger.

15. Act 4, Scene 4

    Marching with his soldiers, Fortinbras sends a Captain to greet the Danish king and request the promised passage through his kingdom. After the prince leaves, Hamlet arrives with Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and others and questions the officer. The Captain explains that the campaign concerns land worth little in rent or sale, though Poland has already garrisoned it. Hamlet first treats the likely cost in lives and money as a diseased consequence of wealth and peace. Once alone, however, he uses the same expedition to accuse himself of failing to avenge his father despite having motive and means. His soliloquy admires action for honour while still calling the soldiers' object a fantasy of fame and their battlefield too small to hold the dead. He ends by demanding bloody thoughts of himself rather than resolving that tension between courage and waste.

16. Act 4, Scene 5

    A gentleman and Horatio persuade the reluctant Queen to receive Ophelia, warning that listeners may draw dangerous conclusions from her broken speech. Ophelia sings about burial and a woman's betrayal after a sexual encounter, while the King attributes her condition to grief for her father. After sending Horatio to watch her, he admits that Polonius' secret burial has helped to stir public suspicion. Another gentleman announces that Laertes is forcing his way in with followers who want him made king. Laertes enters armed, rejects allegiance and fear of damnation, and demands revenge, while the Queen denies that the King killed his father. Ophelia's return, songs and talk of flowers increase her brother's anguish and his desire for vengeance. The King offers judgement by Laertes' chosen friends, and Laertes agrees while insisting that the death and lack of proper funeral honours require investigation.

17. Act 4, Scene 6

    A servant announces sailors carrying letters, and Horatio admits them, expecting news from Hamlet. The First Sailor hands him a letter, which he reads aloud. Hamlet reports boarding a pursuing pirate ship during a forced fight, then being stranded aboard it when the ships separated. He describes the pirates' mercy as an exchange for a favour he must perform, rather than explaining it as simple kindness. The letter asks Horatio to help deliver Hamlet's letters to the King and come urgently to hear matters Hamlet will not set out fully in writing. It also says Rosencrantz and Guildenstern continue towards England, and Horatio agrees to help the sailors deliver the letters before they guide him to Hamlet.

18. Act 4, Scene 7

    The King tells Laertes that the Queen's attachment to Hamlet and Hamlet's popularity prevented a public prosecution. A messenger brings Hamlet's letters, and the King reads that he has returned alone and asks to appear before him the next day. The King then presses Laertes to prove his love for his father through action, presenting delay as a threat to that love. They plan a fencing match in which Laertes will use an unblunted sword, and Laertes proposes coating its point with a deadly substance he has bought. The King adds a poisoned drink in case the sword fails, intending the killing to look accidental even to Hamlet's mother. The Queen enters with an account of Ophelia falling into a brook when a branch broke, singing while her clothes held her up until they became soaked and pulled her under. Laertes weeps despite calling tears womanly, and the King follows him out, fearing renewed anger.

19. Act 5, Scene 1

    In the churchyard, two gravediggers joke about the inquiry into a woman's drowning and suggest that her rank has secured burial denied to others. Hamlet and Horatio arrive, and the First Clown's songs, skulls and verbal tricks turn the grave into a place where social rank and legal claims lose their force. Learning that one skull belonged to Yorick, Hamlet recalls physical affection and laughter before imagining even great rulers reduced to useful clay. The arrival of the King, Queen, Laertes and a funeral procession reveals that the grave is Ophelia's. The priest says doubts about whether she took her own life limit the rites, despite powerful intervention, while Laertes condemns his judgement and the Queen mourns a hoped-for marriage. Laertes leaps into the grave, Hamlet follows and they grapple before attendants part them, and Hamlet turns mourning into a contest over who loved her most. After Hamlet leaves, the King reminds Laertes of their previous discussion and urges patience while their plan proceeds.

20. Act 5, Scene 2

    Alone with Horatio, Hamlet describes forging an order for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be killed without time for confession, says their fate does not trouble his conscience and regrets his outburst against Laertes. Osric brings the fencing wager, and Hamlet accepts despite an inward warning, rejecting Horatio's offer to postpone it and declaring trust in providence. Before the assembled court, Hamlet asks Laertes' pardon and attributes his wrongs to madness, while Laertes accepts his offered love but reserves judgement on the question of honour. During the match the Queen drinks from the poisoned cup, and Laertes wounds Hamlet before they exchange weapons and Hamlet wounds him. Laertes exposes the plot and blames the King, whom Hamlet stabs and forces to drink the poison; Laertes then dies asking for mutual forgiveness, and Hamlet prays that he be forgiven. Dying, Hamlet prevents Horatio from drinking poison, asks him to tell his story and gives Fortinbras his voice in the election. Fortinbras arrives with English ambassadors who confirm the courtiers' deaths, claims rights in Denmark and orders military honours for Hamlet, while Horatio offers a public account to prevent further harm from ignorance and error.

Key quotes