Hamlet explains to Horatio what happened on his journey to England. He says that he strongly suspected Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of foul play, and so decided to apprehend their letter to England. In the letter he found an order for his death. Hamlet then devised a substitute letter asking for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He happened to have a signet ring in the shape of the seal of Denmark, and so sealed the letter. Hamlet then replaced the letter while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were asleep. At this point, pirates attacked the vessel, as related previously.A courtier, Osric, interrupts Hamlet and Horatio. In very ornate and silly language, Osric declares to Hamlet that Claudius has proposed a contest of swordsmanship between Laertes …show more content…
A table is prepared and the king, queen and other figures of state gather to watch the swordfight. Hamlet begs Laertes’ pardon both for his outburst at Ophelia’s grave and for his rash killing of Polonius. Laertes appears to accept this apology but declares that his honor will not be satisfied until they have had their contest. Hamlet and Laertes choose their swords. Laertes nonchalantly chooses the unblunted sword with the envenomed blade. As they prepare to fight, Claudius proposes a drink to Hamlet. The fight begins with Osric as referee. Hamlet wins the first point and the king offers him a drink to refresh himself, dropping a poisoned pearl in the wine just before he hands it over. Hamlet declines to take the drink for the time being. They play another round and Hamlet again wins a point. After this second pass, Gertrude toasts to Hamlet’s health. She takes up the poisoned chalice and has a drink despite Claudius’ protestations. Hamlet and Laertes have a third pass which ends in a draw. After this pass, while Hamlet is unguarded, Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned
It is too late though, the poisonous sword had cut Hamlet. In anger, Hamlet steals the poisoned sword and runs it into Laertes. He then charges Claudius and runs into him. He also takes the wine and forces Claudius to drink from it. Both Claudius and Laertes died before Hamlet.
Laertes makes another unfair move in the film – he wounds Hamlet while Hamlet is on the floor with his back turned. In the text, Laertes wounds Hamlet during their fight...
... of treachery and, luckily, Hamlet realizes the king’s subterfuge, crushing the plot and flipping it back on him. Claudius remains steadfast in his efforts to remove Hamlet, going so far as to set up a false fencing competition and foolishly pushing the poisoned wine without considering the suspiciousness of the action. In his short-sighted and rash decision making, Claudius shows that he allows his inflated sense of regality and self-worth to cloud his judgment.
When Horatio, at the end of the soliloquy, enters and greets Hamlet, it is evident that he and Hamlet have not recently met at Elsinore. Yet Horatio came to Elsinore for the funeral (I.ii. 176). Now even if the funeral took place some three weeks ago, it seems rather strange that Hamlet, however absorbed in grief and however withdrawn from the Court, has not met Horatio. . . (368).
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, false friends of Hamlet who succumb to Claudius' corruptness, serve as a distinct contrast to the loyal friendship that Horatio shares with Hamlet. Voltimand is used to contrast Polonius' often comic verbosity. While Polonius dresses up all his speeches with the language of the court, Voltimand is able to give his entire report on Fortinbras in a matter of seconds. The most powerful foil in the play is between Laertes and Hamlet. Upon hearing of the death of his father, Laertes becomes enraged, and seeks immediate vengeance; he does not delay, and acts instantaneously.
The readers detect that Hamlet goes in the path of plotting and deceiving to kill Claudius, whereas Laertes goes in a more haste and reckless path to kill his father’s killer. Finally, after all the plotting and attempts to kill their father’s killers, Hamlet and Laertes come to face the outcomes of their decisions. During the final scene and act of Hamlet, both foils are engaged in an alleged friendly battle, where the king has placed a bet on Hamlet that he will win over Laertes. After their battle, Laertes manages to hit Hamlet with the poisoned tip of his foil and in turn Hamlet gets him back.
Claudius quickly takes advantage of this by manipulating Laertes to duel Hamlet. Laertes, under the influence of Claudius takes his fury one step further and poisons his sword, a poison so lethal that one cut will end Hamlet. During their duel, Laertes wounds Hamlet then "In scuffing", they exchange swords. Hamlet wounds Laertes and they are both poisoned.
Hamlet agrees to a sword match with Laertes not knowing that Laertes will have a sharp, poisoned sword while he will be given a blunted sword. To make sure that their plan to kill Hamlet works, Claudius poisoned a drink to give to Hamlet but Gertrude ends up drinking it causing their plan to unravel. Laertes then wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword, but in the scuffle they exchange weapons and Hamlet slices Laeretes with the toxic blade. He then slashes Claudius with the poisoned blade and forces him to drink from the toxic cup. The four of them die but with his dying breath, Hamlet pleads with Horatio not to drink from the cup so he can tell his tragic story and announces Fortinbras as the King of Denmark.
When he feels Hamlet is becoming too big of a problem, the ‘loving father and husband’ plans to have his stepson murdered upon arrival in England. Hamlet finds evidence of this, and returns to Elsinore. Claudius receives a letter from Hamlet, stating he will be returning, which causes Claudius to manipulate Laertes by pretending he cares for him. He also claims to mourn the death of Laerte’s father, Polonius, stating, “I loved your father”, in order to convince Laertes to agree to kill Hamlet (IV.vii,34). Claudius arranges for what appears to be a friendly duel between Hamlet and Laertes, but plots to use this match to end Hamlet.
While they were fencing he won the first two matches so Claudius told him to drink out of the cup that he poisoned but Hamlet did not but his mother drank out of the cup for Hamlet after he won the second round not knowing that it was poisoned and after drinking from the cup died a slow painful
Finally we arrive at the sword match between Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet is unaware of Claudius’ poisoned goblet and the poisoned tip of Laertes’ sword. When Laertes cuts Hamlet, he makes the choice to stab Laertes, who would see him dead as well.
The king forbade Fortinbras to wage an attack against Denmark, and instead suggested he attack the Poles to vent his anger. Fortinbras agreed to the plan, but had no intentions of following it. Polonius was King Hamlet’s advisor and the father of Ophelia and Laertes, both of whom respected and loved him, despite his arrogant demeanour. Young Hamlet murdered Polonius accidentally, thinking him to be the king eves dropping on a conversation between Hamlet and his mother. "How now! A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!" Laertes returned home immediately after hearing of his father's death and confronted the King, accusing him of the murder of his father. Once Claudius told Laertes that Hamlet was responsible for his father's death, he and Claudius concoct a scheme to kill Hamlet using a poison tipped sword. "…Hamlet, thou art slain…The treacherous instrument is in thy, unbated and envenom'd…" Hamlet does indeed die as a result of wounds inflicted by Laertes, but it is the poisoned tipped sword that causes the demise of Laertes as well.
Unintendedly, Hamlet lays the first blow with the poisoned sword on Laertes. Claudius then offers a drink from the poisoned cup to Hamlet who refuses, and unbeknownst of Claudius’s plan, the queen takes the cup and drinks the poison . Laertes, who has now wounded Hamlet, informs him of Claudius’s corrupt plan that led to his mother’s death. This is where some scholars believe Hamlet has completed a mental transition that enables him to get his vengeance. Courtney Prince describes this transition saying Hamlet “he has lost touch with his original self; he has changed from his hidden, inner self into the outer persona, becoming his own antic disposition (38). It is Hamlet’s transition to corruptness that allows him to avenge his father’s death, a transition brought on almost entirely by Claudius
He gets a chance to kill the crown, and thinks ‘’Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven/ And that his soul my be as damnes and black/ As hell, whereto it goes’’ (3.4.98-99). But he hesitates, Claudius prays so he might go to heaven if Hamlet kills him now; he wants Claudius to burn in hell and wants himself to go to heaven. He looses his temper and kills the person behind the curtain, ‘’ How now, a rat? Dead for ducat, dead’’ (3.4.25-30). He assumed that was Claudius who sneaked into his mother’s closet and now he goes back to being a sinner so he can kill the crown now, but the one behind the curtain turns out to be Polonius. Hamlet does not care about him although Ophelia loves Polonius. Hamlet decides to take action after he sees Fortinbrass and his army ‘’O, from this time forth/ My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth’’ (4.4.68-69). He sees that they go to death willingly and he does not stand up against Claudius, with this he sets his mind to killing Claudius. Sadness comes with the loss of Ophelia and he goes in a duel with Laertes. Horatio tries to change his decision, but Hamlet says ‘’Not a whit, we defy augury. There is a/ Special providence in the fall of a sparrow’’ (5.2.233-234). Hamlet decides to do the duel and he thinks that he cannot run from his destiny. He gets into a duel full of cheats, Hamlet looses his mother to