This is a plot summary of Shakespeare's Hamlet that I created some years ago. Rather than keep it to myself, I've put it on the Web so that students and experts can make use of it.

Contents

• Hamlet Act I
• Hamlet Act II
• Hamlet Act III
• Hamlet Act IV
• Hamlet Act V

HAMLET

• I.1
  • Guards see the ghost of former King.
    • Audience sees evidence that something is wrong.

• I.2
  • King+Queen let Laertes go to France and counsel Hamlet to get over his fathers death and to not return to school.
  • King tells H that he is next in line to the throne.
  • H is troubled by how quick K+Q married after his fathers funeral.
  • Guards arrive to tell H about the ghost. H agrees to watch for ghost w/them later.
  • Outcomes:
    • Killer whose guilt is not known tries to get concerned party to get over it.
    • Concerned party of a killing enters path of discovery.
    • Audience learns of character's departure.

• I.3
  • Laertes counsels his sister Ophelia to differentiate between desire and love in her dealings with Hamlet.
  • Polonius instructs O to set her prices higher from now on when dealing with Hamlet because his promises and affections are most likely used only to get sex.
  • He tells her she should look for more of a committment.
  • Outcomes:
    • Audience learns of 2 important relationships.

• I.4
  • Hamlet and guards wait for the ghost.
  • It appears and gestures for H to follow.
  • Guards warn H that the ghost might be a demon in disguise but H follows anyway. H threatens guards not to follow.
  • Outcomes:
    • Concerned party of a killing continues path of discovery.

• I.5 Ghost encounter continued:
  • Hamlet demands that the ghost stop and speak. It does. It identifies itself as his father.
  • It describes his own murder and his predicament in the afterlife. It tells H that H must kill K in order to right the situation. It asks H to swear that he will do it.
  • Guards enter as the ghost disappears; they seek info but H will not tell and H makes them swear their silence on the matter. The ghost then bellows out swear a few times but it is not apparent that guards hear this. But they do swear.
  • Outcomes:
    • Concerned party of a killing finishes path to discovery of who is murderer.
    • Concerned party of a killing swears to get revenge for the dead.

• II.1
  • Polonius sends someone to give funds to Laertes as well as to both find out w/whom he is hanging out in France and to spread a few minor rumors about L so as to drive him away from there.
  • Ophelia reports that H came to her pale and severely disturbed and that H then departed from her.
  • P incorrectly infers that this event was cause by Ophelia having played hard to get and tells O of this theory.
  • Outcomes:
    • Audience (& character) see evidence that Concerned Party has begun on the path to revenge. To character it is mysterious.
    • Audience learns of character's return.

• II.2
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive are greeted by K+Q amicably and are asked to stay in Elsinore awhile.
  • P arrives and offers his theory of the strange behavior of Hamlet.
  • Ambassadors arrives and K allows them to interrupt P and tell K about the Norwegians and Fortinbras. P reads aloud a letter from H to O.
  • P then explains the series of events leading to Ophelias recent experience w/H.
  • P proposes that K+Polonius secretly observe a forced encounter between O and H wherein Hamlets love for O will be tested.
  • H enters.
  • P tries to talk with him but H mocks him.
  • R+G arrive and try to cheer up H.
  • Skeptical H immediately asks why they are here and who sent for them; they admit it was King and Queens doing.
  • Then when H is about to get angry R+G announce the arrival of players (P arrives also) who then put on a piece.
  • H asks the players if they will put on a play of his own design tomorrow night; they accept the assignment.
  • H who is troubled by his own inaction and overpensiveness decides he will use the play to confirm Kings guilt.
  • Outcomes:
    • Audience learns of a desire to ascertain H's desire for O, which is also a step in K's process of removing/killing H.
    • Audience learns of H's desire to ascertain K's guilt. Thus Concerned Party enters the path of confirmation of guilt via his plan to trick K.

• III.1
  • K interrogates R+G to find out what is causing Hamlets madness.
  • H laments.
  • K+P watch as H rejects poor Ophelia.
  • P suggests to K that he let Queen try to sway Hamlet and that if that does not work then that K should send H to England.
  • Outcomes:
    • K pretends to be innocent and unknowing.
    • Concerned Party rejects vulnerable loved-one to protect her.
    • K makes another step in the process of removing/killing H.

• III.2
  • H instructs players on how to act.
  • H tells R+G to help the players.
  • H tells Horatio to watch Kings face during the play.
  • H talks a bit w/Ophelia before the play; venting his anger by jesting with her.
  • Play occurs: Brother of a king kills the king and takes queen as wife.
  • Ophelia asks what it is about.
  • Play continues; ends.
  • King et al want an explanation; H says it is about events in Vienna.
  • K suddenly needs light and air: as if going into shock.
  • K exits. P+Q+R+G follow.
  • R+G come back; they tell H that K is very angry and that Queen wants to speak with Hamlet.
  • H who is tired of R+G demands to know why they seem to think they can manipulate him.
  • H threatens them in soft cryptic terms.
  • P arrives and asks H to go speak with Q; H agrees to.
  • Outcomes:
    • K continues to pretend to be innocent, which in the face of a public accusation requires an engry reaction.
    • Concerned Party and friend Horatio see proof the Kings guilt. Thus Concerned Party finishes the path of confirmation of guilt via his plan to trick K.

• III.3
  • King tells R+G that he will have them take H to England. R+G agree that H is a source of trouble and thereby accept the assignment.
  • P tells K that H will go to see Q.
  • K starts praying.
  • H enters.
  • H sees K praying but decides that he will not kill K now as H thinks/fears that to kill him while he is praying will send King to heaven.
  • H also feels that to kill K now would not be a sufficiently losing revenge.
  • So Hamlet leaves.
  • K gives up praying. He admits it was insincere.
  • Outcomes:
    • Audience learns that K only fakes piousness.
    • Audience learns that K will kill again to protect himself from Concerned Party of the killing. Therefore audience deduces K is evil.

• III.4
  • H goes to speak with Queen and right away expresses his anger.
  • This causes P (who is hiding) to say something.
  • H hears P and stabs the spying P.
  • P who falls and H+Q see him.
  • H then makes a long and confusing speech to Q.
  • Ghost appears and counsels H. Q does not see the ghost and thinks H mad.
  • H orders Q to keep away from K tonight as if H planned on slaying K in bed.
  • H tells Q he agrees to go to England.
  • H drags body of Polonius away.
  • Outcomes:
    • Audience observes the destructive influence of the situation on H, who is weak but bold. He has become paranoid and reckless. This is a step in K's expulsion of H.
    • Tragedy and downfall for Concerned Party H.

• IV.1
  • K inquires as to why Q seems upset.
  • Q tells K that H killed P.
  • K reflects that H should have been more strongly controlled.
  • K announces a promise that H will soon be sent away.
  • K gets the idea of spreading the word about Hamlets act of killing. Here K begins his use of Hamlets mistake in the effort to get rid of H.)
  • Outcomes:
    • K reaps an unexpected benefit in his effort to expel H. to Hamlets Concerned Party i.e. Q.
    • K makes another step in expelling H, namely announcing the plan to Hamlets Concerned Party i.e. Q.

• IV.2
  • H hides body of Polonius.
  • R+G come to get H and body.
  • H insults them and refuses to give the body. But H goes with them.
  • Outcomes:
    • K makes another step in expelling H, namely the formal summoning of H to tell him.

• IV.3
  • K reflects to himself that H is well loved by the people because of his looks but that Hamlets crime of killing P must be punished. His own crime somehow does not occur to him presently.
  • R+G arrive with H and report that H did not tell them where the body is. H confirms it.
  • K orders H to go to England.
  • H does not put up a fuss.
  • K tells R+G to make sure that H gets on the boat.
  • Outcomes:
    • The audience is given confirmation of K's true intent, to kill H.
    • K makes another step in expelling H, namely the formal order to leave.

• IV.4
  • Fortinbras arrives seeking to cross Denmark.
  • Hamlet asks one of the men with Fortinbras who he is. He is his captain.
  • Hamlet reflects on the beastliness of human existence or the beastliness in his life anyway.

• IV.5
  • Horatio brings Ophelia but Queen does not want to see her.
  • Horatio shows her in anyway; O is speaking and singing nonsense as if mad.
  • K arrives and O sings/speaks much more nonsense to K/Q/Horatio.
  • O leaves and K orders Horatio to follow.
  • K conveniently reflects to O that H is evil and that all is unwell because of him.
  • Laertes arrives with a mob that is chanting Laertes the King. L wants blood.
  • K+Q stop Laertes. They deny any guilt yet probe to uncover his intentions.
  • O comes along singing.
  • L agrees to ally himself with K and pledges to kill H; K+L exit.
  • Outcomes:
    • L is Concerned Party of P's death, and begins the process of getting revenge on H.
    • Audience observes the tragedy of the K-H conflict.
    • K sabotages H-O relationship, taking advantage of O's sickness.

• IV.6
  • Horatio (who is without O) receives a letter via sailors from H.
  • In the letter Hamlet asks Horatio to send the other letters.
  • Outcomes:
    • Audience learns that H is alive, and that H trusts Horatio.

• IV.7
  • K+L are talking-- L wants to know why K did not act against H.
  • After all Hamlet did murder Polonius.
  • K explains that the love of the Queen and the people for Hamlet prevented that.
  • Thus:
    • L continues in his revenge, here sizing up who is responsible. Thus this is a step toward discovery.
  • Messenger brings letters from H -- one for K and one for Q.
  • K reads his. It simply says that H will return. (Q exits.)
  • K+L agree to kill Hamlet when he returns; L volunteers to be the primary killer.
  • Thus:
    • K continues in his attack on H, finding someone else to kill H.
    • L continues in his revenge, here confirming he will kill the killer.
  • K reports that he heard a Norman praised Laertes use of the rapier; this pleases and emboldens L.
  • K asks L if he loved P since if so he asks what would Laertes do for revenge?
  • L says he will kill the killer.
  • K invents a plan: L+H will be brought together to fight.
  • L offers to dip is blade in poison.
  • K presents specific plan to for L to kill H.
  • K offers to poison Hamlets drink so that when H gets tired and thirsty he will drink poison.
  • Q arrives and announces that O has drowned.
  • L is shocked.
  • Q explains that O fell in a pond after her flowers fell in but she let herself sink.
  • L puts off being sorrowful since he wants to focus on revenge; he exits.
  • K announces to Q that Ophelias death puts his self-control in jeopardy.
  • They follow L.
  • Outcomes:
    • K uses O's death as a means of justifying future rash actions.

• V.1
  • Two gravediggers joke around the new grave that will be for Ophelia.
  • One looses a bet and leaves to buy liquor.
  • Hamlet and Horatio arrive; they do not introduce themselves but joke with the diggers:
  • They asks whose grave is this but are told of the former occupant: the old court jester that H knew.
  • H laments the passing of the jester.
  • A funeral procession (L+K+Q+priest) approaches therefore Hamlet and Horatio hide.
  • Laertes is disappointed w/the priests speech.
  • He jumps into Ophelias grave and makes his own.
  • H is devastated by death of Ophelia. Feeling strangely forgotten and upstaged H jumps in after L and makes his own speech while L tries to grab aggressively at him.
  • Everyone is yelling; H who is angered by the aggressiveness of L pledges to fight him.

• V.2
  • Hamlet revels in the fighting and grand changes to come.
  • Hamlet tells Horatio of the letter ordering Hamlets death and gives it to him.
  • H explains that he had a royal seal w/him so he used it to forge a new writ.
  • When the pirates attacked the ship H left the forged writ in the originals place.
  • Horatio balks; but H explains that K killed Hamlets father; K whored his mother; etc.
  • H says he regrets killing P.
  • Osric -- a favored land-owner -- relays a msg from K to H: that K has placed a wager on H. Osric praises L in an effort to warn H of Laertes fighting skills. Finally Osric just says it plainly: L is skilled.
  • H asks what weapons L is good at.
  • Osric tells him and tells what L stands to gain if H loses; and what L must do (a few hits here or there) if he will be considered successful. H must accept and does. Osric goes to relay the msg to K.
  • A lord comes to find out how much longer H will be since everyone is assembling; the lord tells H that Q suggests H be friendly to L before they fight.
  • Horatio tells H that he thinks H will lose; Hamlet who is suspecting nothing says he thinks this will be a minor fight and that since H has been practicing he may even win.
  • K/Q/L and everyone else (lords etc.) arrive.
  • Hamlet announces that he is innocent of killing Polonius since it was his madness that did it. L says he is satisfied with the use of the fight to solve the situation.
  • H+L take their foils but L complains that his is too heavy and take a different one.
  • K says he will drink to Hamlet and is given two prepared cups.
  • H+L fight; H makes a hit on L; K drinks to H. Queen drinks despite K telling her not to. K knows the drink is poisoned.
  • H+L continue; each is wounded.
  • Queen now looks ill. K makes an excuse for it but Q says she has been poisoned.
  • H hears this and has the doors locked.
  • L admits that H has been poisoned too.
  • Hamlet kills King.
  • L asks H for forgiveness and then dies.
  • H laments and reflects upon his own imminent death and asks Horatio to tell the story of all of this well; H hears the sound of someone arriving and then dies.
  • The Norwegian Fortinbras arrives with English ambassadors; Horatio prepares to tell them what has happened.

Exuent.