Plot Summary
Prince Hamlet of Denmark returns home from university to find that his father, King Hamlet, has died and his mother Gertrude has married his uncle Claudius, who has taken the throne. The Ghost of Hamlet's father appears on the battlements and reveals that Claudius murdered him by pouring poison in his ear while he slept. The Ghost demands revenge.
Hamlet is paralyzed. He knows what he should do — kill Claudius — but cannot bring himself to act. Instead, he feigns madness, stages a play ("The Mousetrap") that mirrors the murder to test Claudius's guilt, delivers anguished soliloquies about the meaning of life and death ("To be, or not to be"), and delays at every turn.
His indecision has devastating consequences. He accidentally kills Polonius (the father of his love interest Ophelia and her brother Laertes), mistaking him for Claudius behind a curtain. Ophelia, driven mad by her father's death and Hamlet's cruelty, drowns. Laertes returns from France seeking revenge for his father and sister.
Claudius manipulates Laertes into a plot: a fencing match with Hamlet using a poisoned blade and a poisoned cup of wine as backup. In the final scene, everything collapses at once. Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine. Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword, then they exchange weapons and Hamlet wounds Laertes. Dying, Laertes reveals the plot. Hamlet finally kills Claudius — only at the moment of his own death. Fortinbras of Norway arrives to find the entire Danish royal family dead and takes the throne.
Key Themes
- Indecision and inaction: Hamlet knows what to do and cannot make himself do it — his delay kills everyone around him
- The problem of knowledge: Knowing the truth is not the same as being able to act on it
- Appearance vs. reality: Hamlet feigns madness, Claudius feigns innocence, the court is built on performance
- Revenge and justice: The play asks whether revenge is justice or just another form of violence
- Mortality: "To be, or not to be" — Hamlet's obsession with death paralyzes his ability to live
- Corruption: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" — the murder infects the entire court
Key Characters
- Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, brilliant and agonized, whose inability to act is the engine of the tragedy
- Claudius: Hamlet's uncle, who murdered King Hamlet and married Gertrude — politically shrewd, morally bankrupt
- Gertrude: Hamlet's mother, whose hasty remarriage torments Hamlet — her motives remain ambiguous
- Ophelia: Polonius's daughter, who loves Hamlet and is destroyed by the forces around her
- Polonius: Ophelia's father, a meddling courtier killed by Hamlet in error
- Laertes: Ophelia's brother, who acts decisively where Hamlet cannot — and is manipulated for it
- Horatio: Hamlet's loyal friend, the only major character who survives
- The Ghost: King Hamlet's spirit, who sets the revenge plot in motion