Act 1 Summary

In Act1, scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the guards of the

palace are having a typical conversation. King Hamlet has just recently been

murdered by his brother Claudius, who soon after took over his Kingdom and

married his wife. The palace guards think that they are seeing a ghost who they

believe to be the spirit of King Hamlet coming back for revenge for his death.

The guards then debate whether or not to tell Prince Hamlet about his father’s

ghost. During Act 1 we also see Hamlet and Claudius’ first interaction, where

we become familiar with Shakespeare’s many puns. We then move on to

Hamlet’s first soliloquy, where he expresses his pain for his father’s death as well

as his anger and desperate want for revenge. Next, before Laertes leaves for

college in France, he and Polonius lecture Ophelia on Hamlet and tell her to

break up with him. They tell her that all he wants from her is sex and that it

would be in her best interest to leave him. Ophelia then listens to their advice,

and Laertes leaves the scene, ending Act 1.

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Act 2

Act 2 Summary

Hamlet, after the dreadful breakup, ventures off to Ophelia’s bedroom where

he is overcome by love madness. He grabs her by the wrist and looks upon her face

for a long time. Then he lets her go and walks out her bedroom still setting a gaze

upon her. Ophelia conveys this awkward moment to Polonius and tells him how

Hamlet reacted to Ophelia’s sudden break up. Polonius contemplates to tell this

uncanny incidence to Claudius. In the meantime Claudius and Gertrude send

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet’s recently odd behavior. Hamlet

suspects immediately that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were sent to look after him.

Finally Polonius explained his theory to Claudius about how Hamlet’s behavior may

have been impacted by the break-up between Hamlet and Ophelia. Even though

Claudius does not believe in Polonius’s judgment about Hamlet, he still makes up his

mind to spy on Hamlet with Polonius by his side. Now Hamlet listens to a speech done

by one of the actors that portrayed the nephew avenging his father’s murderer

which was similar to Hamlet’s and Claudius’s situation. Hamlet realized how he was

not fully attained emotional magnitude that he should have felt as the way the actor

did. Hamlet develops a plan in which he asks the players to perform the significant

play of “The murder of Ganzago.” This play will help Hamlet determine if Claudius

really murdered his brother or not.

Act 3

Act Three

Starting the scene Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are giving their report to

King Claudius saying that Hamlet outsmarted them. Then Claudius talks to

Gertrude about Hamlet and what he has been doing lately. After the King and

Polonius hide and wait to see what he’ll say to Ophelia. Hamlet says his

infamous “To be or not to be” soliloquy before coming in to talk to her. He

debates life and death and whether it is better to live with what he is going

through or throw it all away. Then, Ophelia comes in and Hamlet starts talking

crazy. He talks about how he never actually loved her and how she should

become a nun, which could be a pun for a whore. Afterwards Hamlet exits,

Claudius and Polonius come out and Ophelia says that hamlet has gone crazy,

but Claudius has doubts.

Later Hamlet runs into a troupe of actors. After talking with them for a

while he comes up with a plan to prove Claudius’s terrible action. His plan is to

have a play shown that mimics how Claudius killed Hamlet’s father. As it works,

Claudius erupts and storms out of the show. Claudius confesses in a soliloquy to

killing the previous King. Hamlet says he can’t kill him right then because if he

did, Claudius would be sent to heaven for praying and asking for forgiveness.

After that Hamlet goes to talk to his mother, the Queen. Unknown to him

Polonius is spying. Hamlet actually gets somewhat violent with Gertrude. When

she yells for help Polonius accidentally responds and Hamlet stabs him through

the curtain. After hamlet and Gertrude are done talking Hamlet leaves,

dragging the body in tow.

Act 4

Act four beings with Gertrude telling Claudius about her meeting with Hamlet, how Hamlet was very

aggressive towards her and that Hamlet has killed Polonius. After hearing this, Claudius decides to stick with

his plan to send Hamlet to England and now he has a probable reason.

Claudius sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find Polonius’s body but when they asked Hamlet

where he had put the body, Hamlet will not give them a straight answer. Hamlet goes on to explain that it

doesn’t matter if you’re a king or a beggar once you die, status doesn’t matter anymore.

Everything is now ready for Hamlet to be shipped to England. However, Claudius is hesitant about

how to send Hamlet away and doesn’t know how the public or Gertrude will handle it. Hamlet is loved by the

public and Claudius does not want to risk how the public feels about him by treating Hamlet poorly. With this

Claudius plans to send him away but he will also be sending a letter to the king of England to have Hamlet

killed upon arrival.

Before Hamlet gets on the ship he runs into Fortinbras and his army marching through Denmark to

attack Poland. Hamlet talks to Fortinbras and found out that the land they are fighting for is almost worthless

and really small, almost pointless to fight for, so Fortinbras explains. This really motivates Hamlet to think that

if theese man fighting for nothing can kill, and risk being killed. Why can’t he kill Claudius, when he has such

good reason, his father’s death. Here, for the first time in the play Hamlet really seems ready to go, this is the

most driven for revenge he has been.

Laertes has returned back to Denmark because he has herd for his father’s death. Him and His sister

Ophelia are having a very hard time with this. Laertes demands for revenge on hamlet and Ophelia’s just

starts to go crazy, dancing and singing everywhere. As this is going on, Hamlet is sneaking back to Denmark

with no one’s acknowledgement, to finally act on his plan to take Claudius’s life. This act ends with Ophelia

being found in a river, she has drowned from her clothes being extremely heavy. Many believe that it was not

accidental but a suicide because of the way Ophelia had been acting about her father’s death

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