Tragedy Drama Plot and Summary: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Tragedy Drama Plot and Summary

Hamlet

By: William Shakespeare

Plot

Stages	Detail of the Play	Act … Scene …	Explanation
Anticipation Stage	[Act 1, Scene 2] Hamlet “Within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears. Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes, She married. O most wicked speed, to post. With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” [Act 1, Scene 5] Ghost “I am thy father’s spirit.. ..Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.. .. Sleeping within my orchard, My custom always of the afternoon, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole. With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment.” Hamlet “Remember thee! Yea, from the table of my memory. I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, 100 All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past That youth and observation copied there, And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain, Unmixed with baser matter.”	Act 1, Scene 2 and 5.	Anguished, Prince Hamlet laments his father’s death and his mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle, Claudius, not yet two month after his father’s death. Unexpectedly, his father’s ghost shows up and tell Hamlet that he is killed by Claudius from poison. The ghost orders Hamlet to take a revenge for him. Hamlet who loves his father so much does as he is told to.
Dream Stage	[Act 2, Scene 2] Hamlet “As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds More relative than this. The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” [Act 3, Scene 2] The Play She, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, pours poison in the King’s ears, and exits. CLAUDIUS stands up. POLONIUS “Give o'er the play.” CLAUDIUS “Give me some light, away!” HAMLET “O good Horatio, I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?” HORATIO “Very well, my lord.”	Act 2, Scene 2. Act 3, Scene 2.	When road actors are stopped by Elsinore to hold a play, Hamlet sets a plan to add few lines to the script. The change he has made is a scene where the king is getting poisoned by his brother while sleeping. The story is just like his dead father’s. It is to bring more evidence and to uncover the conscience of Claudius. The added scene by Hamlet is showing. Claudius reacts to it shocked, then leaves hurriedly. Hamlet and Horatio observe the situation and feel satisfied. They are now sure that Claudius is the murderer of King Hamlet.
Frustration Stage	[Act 3, Scene 3] HAMLET “Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged. That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. Oh, this is hire and salary, not revenge.” [Act 3, Scene 4] GERTRUDE “What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!” POLONIUS “(from behind the arras) What, ho? Help, help, help!” HAMLET “How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!” (stabs his sword through the arras and kills POLONIUS) HAMLET “.. Is it the king?” Enter GHOST GHOST “Do not forget. This visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.” Hamlet “(points to POLONIUS) For this same lord, I do repent. But heaven hath pleased it so, To punish me with this and this with me, That I must be their scourge and minister. I will bestow him and will answer well The death I gave him. So, again, good night. I must be cruel only to be kind. Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.”	Act 3, Scene 3 and 4.	Hamlet plans to kill Claudius, but he comes when Claudius is praying for his sins. Hamlet thinks of his revenge carefully. He decides to kill Claudius at another time. Hamlet goes to his mother’s chamber. There, Hamlet accosts her with an almost violent intensity and declares his intention to make her fully aware of the profundity of her sin. Fearing for her life, Gertrude cries out. Polonius who is hiding behind a curtain shows up. Mistaken Polonius as Claudius, Hamlet stabs him with sword. King Hamlet’s ghost appears to remind Hamlet the real revenge which is to kill Claudius. Before leaving Gertrude’s chamber, Hamlet says that he knows heaven will punish him for killing relatively innocent Polonius.
Nightmare Stage	HAMLET “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers, if you added all their love together, couldn’t match mine. What are you going to do for her?” HAMLET “Damn it, show me what you’re going to do for her. Will you cry? Fight? Stop eating? Cut yourself? Drink vinegar? Eat a crocodile? I’ll do all that. Did you come here to whine? To outdo me by jumping into her grave so theatrically? To be buried alive with her? So will I. And if you rattle on about mountains, then let them throw millions of acres over us. It will be so high a peak that it scrapes against heaven and makes Mount Ossa look like a wart. See? I can talk crazy as well as you.”	Act 5, Scene 1.	Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, a priest, and Ophelia’s coffin enter churchyard. Hamlet is shocked seeing Ophelia has dead. Hamlet bursts upon the company, declaring in agonized fury his own love for Ophelia. He leaps into the grave and fights with Laertes, saying that he would do things for Ophelia that Laertes could not dream of—he would eat a crocodile for her, he would be buried alive with her.
Destruction or Death Wish Stage	Hamlet “There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is ’t to leave betimes? Let be.” HAMLET Heaven make thee free of it. I follow thee.—I am dead, Horatio.—Wretched queen, adieu!—You that look pale and tremble at this chance, That are but mutes or audience to this act, Had I but time (as this fell sergeant, Death, Is strict in his arrest), O, I could tell you—But let it be. Horatio, I am dead. Thou livest. Report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied.”	Act 5, Scene 2.	Laertes seeks for revenge on Hamlet for Polonius, his father’s death. Hamlet and Laertes are fighting in fencing match. Before the match starts, Hamlet tells Horatio that he knows he will die and ready for it. Hamlet dies from Laertes’ poisoned sword. Laertes, Gertrude, Claudius, and Hamlet all die by poison.

Summary

            Three guards saw a ghost of King Hamlet. They informed Horatio, a scholar and a friend of Prince Hamlet. Horatio did not believe it at first, but after accompanying them he saw the ghost with his own eyes. On the other place, Claudius declared that he had married Gertrude, the queen and Prince Hamlet’s mother. Claudius became the king. Horatio and few guards later delivered the news to Prince Hamlet who was still mourning over his father’s death. Knowing there was a ghost exactly like his father, Hamlet was eager to meet the ghost.

            On the midnight, Hamlet managed to talk to the ghost. It claimed to be his father’s soul that could not rest in peace due to unnatural death. The ghost filled Hamlet in on the true story of his death. King Hamlet died because he was poisoned when he was asleep by his brother, Claudius. Hamlet made a vow to the ghost to have a revenge on Claudius. Hamlet acts as if he is crazy in front of everyone. Polonius expects Hamlet’s craziness is because Ophelia, his daughter, keeps a distance from Hamlet as he has told her to do. Ophelia’s father and brother, Polonius and Laertes, do not agree on the idea of her having relationship with Hamlet. Polonius who has close relation with royal family expresses his expectation on Hamlet to the king and queen. They see eye to eye to watch Hamlet closely.

            One night, a group of actors arrive in Elsinore. They are Hamlet’s favorites. Suddenly, Hamlet plans to add few lines and scene to their play. The change he has made is a scene where the king is getting poisoned by his brother while sleeping. The story is just like his dead father’s. It is to bring more evidence and to uncover the conscience of Claudius. Later, the added scene by Hamlet is showing. Claudius reacts to it shocked, then leaves hurriedly. Hamlet and Horatio observe the situation and feel satisfied. They are now sure that Claudius is the murderer of King Hamlet.

            Since everything is clearer now, Hamlet plans to kill Claudius, but he comes when Claudius is praying for his sins. Hamlet thinks of his revenge carefully. He decides to kill Claudius at another time. Hamlet goes to his mother’s chamber. Gertrude says Hamlet has offended Claudius’ feelings. Hamlet bursts out of rage. He accosts her with an almost violent intensity and declares his intention to make her fully aware of the profundity of her sin. Fearing for her life, Gertrude cries out. Polonius who is hiding behind a curtain shows up. Mistaken Polonius as Claudius, Hamlet stabs him with sword.

King Hamlet’s ghost appears to remind Hamlet the real revenge which is to kill Claudius. Before leaving Gertrude’s chamber, Hamlet says that he knows heaven will punish him for killing relatively innocent Polonius. Gertrude informs Claudius on what has happened. Oedipus makes a decision to send Hamlet to England to avoid public’s roar accompanied with 2 other persons. Along with Hamlet, Claudius has written a letter directed to England ambassador. The letter is an order to kill Hamlet.

Ophelia has gone crazy due to his father’s death. Laertes, Polonius’ son who were in France, is back to Denmark in anger for his father’s death and Ophelia becoming crazy. Claudius and Gertrude tells Laertes that the slayer is Hamlet, and Laertes has a right to seek for revenge. The ship that takes Hamlet to England is captured by pirates, and they are taking Hamlet back to Denmark. Horatio is being informed soon. The pirates are showing Hamlet’s hideout in the countryside near the castle.

Claudius gives Laertes an idea to kill Hamlet, by fencing match. Claudius recalls Hamlet is jealous of Laertes’ skill in fencing. Other than that, Claudius will poisoned Laertes’ sword and will give Hamlet poisoned wine. Gertrude enters with tragic news. Ophelia, mad with grief, has drowned in the river. Ophelia is buried in churchyard by request of royal family, but two gravediggers question it.

Hamlet and Horatio watch gravediggers digging a grave of someone and ask whose grave it is, but they answer in riddle. Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, a priest, and Ophelia’s coffin enter churchyard. Hamlet is shocked seeing Ophelia has dead. Hamlet bursts upon the company, declaring in agonized fury his own love for Ophelia. He leaps into the grave and fights with Laertes, saying that he would do things for Ophelia that Laertes could not dream of—he would eat a crocodile for her, he would be buried alive with her. The combatants are pulled apart by the funeral company. Gertrude and Claudius declare that Hamlet is mad. Hamlet storms off, and Horatio follows. The king urges Laertes to be patient, and to remember their plan for revenge.

The next day at Elsinore Castle, Hamlet tells Horatio how he plotted to overcome Claudius’s scheme to have him murdered in England. He replaced the sealed letter carried by the unsuspecting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, which called for Hamlet’s execution, with one calling for the execution of the bearers of the letter—Rosencrantz and Guildenstern themselves. Hamlet also feels sorry for having behaved with such hostility toward Laertes. In Laertes’ desire to avenge his father’s death, he says, he sees the mirror image of his own desire, and he promises to seek Laertes’ good favor.

A lord enters and asks Hamlet if he is ready to come to the match, as the king and queen are expecting him. Against Horatio’s advice, Hamlet agrees to fight, saying he must be ready for death. Hamlet asks Laertes for forgiveness, claiming that it was his madness, and not his own will, that murdered Polonius. Laertes says that he will not forgive Hamlet. Before the match starts, Claudius offers Hamlet the poisoned drink, but Hamlet refuses. Gertrude drinks it instead. Laertes scores causing a blood in Hamlet’s body. The poisoned sword is exchanged and now is in the hand of Hamlet. Laertes is wounded by Hamlet. Laertes tells that he, Hamlet, and Gertrude are poisoned by Claudius.

Hamlet goes rage and forces Claudius to drink the poisoned wine. Not long after that, everyone has died except for Horatio. Fortinbras and England ambassador comes to report about king’s request in a letter, yet they see a terrible scene. Horatio says he will fill them in. Fortinbras orders for Hamlet to be carried away like a soldier.

Author:

Arum Ratnaning Ratri

2211416050

English Literature, 2016

Universitas Negeri Semarang

For subject:

Drama Analysis (407)