How is Hamlet killed in the play Hamlet?

Answer 1

Hamlet is killed in Act 5, scene 2 when Laertes cuts him with a poisoned blade. Hamlet's Uncle Claudius has convinced Hamlet to duel Laertes and has supplied Laertes with the poisoned blade that kills Hamlet.

Answer 2

It was the poisoned tip of Laertes sword that has cut Hamlet in the third round of sword fighting where Hamlet kills Laertes but not before Laertes tells Hamlet that he is a dead man too because the King, Claudius, of whom Hamlet has been wanting to kill since the play began convinced Laertes to poison his sword before dueling Hamlet. See, as the play begins, Denmark, which is where Hamlet is from, is in a state of high alert because Fortinbras of Norway wants to open up a can of whoop some rear end on Denmark because of what Hamlets father did to Fortinbras Father. So, the times are precarious for the state of Denmark and there are rumors of war and rumors of intrigue and just a whole lot of rumors. So, Hamlet comes home from school because his father has died mysteriously and even more mysteriously Hamlet has been cut out of ascension to the throne because his mother Gertrude, has now married her dead husbands brother and Hamlets uncle Claudius.

Claudius as the new king has sent ambassadors to Norway to try and convince the King there to put a leash on young Fortinbras while claiming he doesn't understand Hamlets mistrust of him. Of course Hamlet is a little freaked out about a marriage that took place just one month after the death of his father. In the meantime Laertes, son of the Lord Chamberlain Polonius, is hanging out with his sister Ophelia who is being pursued by Hamlet. Laertes warns his sister not to mess with that dog Hamlet because she will only get hurt and then dad Polonius tells her the same confessing he thinks Hamlet is only using her.

Meanwhile, Hamlet's best bud Horatio tells Hamlet he has to check out this crazy story that he and Marcellus have to tell about ghosts of dead fathers. Hamlet goes with Horatio and Marcellus and runs into the ghost of his dead father and chases him around to get the scoop on things. The dead ghost tells Hamlet exactly what he wants to hear which is Claudius is scandalous and killed him. Hamlet is totally freaked out because he suspected something was rotten in Denmark but this information he has is sort of sketchy since he got it from a...well, you know ghost, so he tells his buds Horatio and Marcellus to keep quiet about the whole thing while he figures out what to do next.

While Hamlet is figuring out what to do next Polonius, who is either a doddering old fool or a very wise old man, for some reason sends Reynaldo to go spy on his son Laertes in Paris while Ophelia comes to her father and tells him of a strange encounter she's had with Hamlet who had made the unthinkable mistake of a fashion fauz pas of dressing badly. Polonius suspects he is acting strange because of Ophelia's rejection and decided to tell the King Claudius of this news. Upon hearing this news Claudius sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to check this nonsense out and find out what is up with Hamlet. The Queen Gertrude is certain the strange behavior of her son is caused by the death and her recent marriage to Claudius. To top everything off Fortinbras is on the move and headed for Denmark and Hamlet sees an opportunity to discover the truth about his fathers death in a traveling group of actors. You see, Hamlet has heard how sometimes the passion of drama can so stir a person that while they are watching the play they themselves are compelled to confess their own wrong doings as the guilt brought on by the plays story is too much to bear. This is why Hamlet says "The play is the thing."

Hamlet conspires with the traveling troupe of actors and rewrites some lines of their play in hopes to expose Claudius as his fathers murderer. Both Claudius and Polonius hide behind curtains to spy on Hamlet and Ophelia while Hamlet seems agitated and sends her away saying mean things like: "Get thee to a nunnery." And things like that. But, not before the big to be or not be speech he gives pretty much for those two old snoops Claudius and Polonius. The whole thing designed to make it appear as if Hamlet is mad, as in loony as loon...you know nuts. Later, Polonius convince Claudius to let him spy on Hamlet when he is alone with his mother and Claudius decides to send Hamlet to England because he is getting all paranoid about Hamlet and his nutty behavior.

The big night of the play is at hand and just like in modern times the goofy mime at the beginning of the play that acts out Hamlet's fathers murder is ignored but the play itself, "The Murder of Ganzago" has very interesting results and Hamlet becomes more convinced after seeing Claudius' reaction that this dude is guilty. So, Hamlet then goes to meet his mother privately but before that happens Claudius tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to go with Hamlet to England and then reveals in one of those goofy speeches to the audience that Shakespeare is always writing, he admits to killing Hamlets father. Alone with his mother, Hamlet listens to his mothers nagging and scolding but responds like any rebellious son would and scolds her back. Moms being over dramatic, Gertrude screams out in fear and Polonius hiding behind yet another curtain cries out for help sure that the nutty Hamlet is going to kill his mother. Instead, Hamlet thinking the guy behind the curtain is Claudius pulls out his sword and stabs Polonius killing him.

Hamlet goes back to giving his mom a whole bunch of grief but since fathers know best, the ghost of Hamlets father comes back to tell him to chill and be nice to his mother. Gertrude, being a loving mother and devoted to her dead husband decides to find redemption and vows to stop sleeping with Claudius. When Claudius discovers that Polonius has been murdered he totally freaks out and decides that Hamlet is going to England like now and sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out where Hamlet hid Polonius' corpse. Hamlet refuses to tell and lets those two clowns Roesncrantz and Guildenstern know what he thinks of them, which isn't much and he call them stuff like lapdogs and things like that. He does, however, agree to meet with Claudius.

When Hamlet meets with the King Claudius they sort of circle each other like sumo wrestlers about to lunge at each other and do battle. Hamlet decides to tell Claudius where he hid Polonius and Claudius tells Hamlet he better go to England for his own good. Of course, we as the audience know it is for Claudius' own good and once Hamlet splits Claudius reveals his intent to have Hamlet murdered in England removing this threat once and for all. Meanwhile, Fortinbras is marching across Denmark kicking some butt on the Polish armies on his way to kick Hamlet's butt. Hamlet is envious of Fortinbras boldness even if it is pointless and reckless it strikes Hamlet that it is honorable. Hamlet is ashamed that he himself can not be honorable in regards to his own fathers murder and his mother made a tainted woman by the brute Claudius.

The death of Polonius has really shook up poor little Ophelia and Laerrtes goes storming into the castle demanding to know what's up with all of this and wants to see his father. Claudius tries to calm the hot headed Laertes assuring him that he to is all bent out of shape over the death of Polonius. Claudius tells Laertes that is Hamlet who killed his father and using this to create a common enemy convinces Laertes to challenge Hamlet to a duel and to make matters worse Laertes learns of his sister Ophelia's suicide or crazy accidental death by drowning. This totally bums out Laertes.

Meanwhile, Hamlet hangs out with his best bud Horatio in a grave yard where Hamlet has an epiphany about the transitory nature of humanity. At Ophelia's funeral the priest upsets Laertes by going on about suicide and Hamlet gets into a fight with Laertes because he thinks he loved Ophelia more than her brother did. Laertes is like all "Oh yeah?" and Hamlet is all like; "Yeah, that's right buddy!" and you know the big fight is coming. So, then Hamlet tells Horatio how he avoided his own murder and instead how Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Then Hamlet admits he really, really wants to kill this guy Claudius. Then some guy comes along and tells Hamlet how Laertes is waiting for him to have the big fight everybody is waiting for. So Hamlet goes to fight with Laertes and while they are fighting Hamlet's mom Gertrude drinks a cup of poison intended for Hamlet, because Claudius is really intent on killing Hamlet, and Gertrude dies. Before she dies she makes it clear she was poisoned and Hamlet finally fatally stabs Laertes and Laertes points out that Hamlet is a goner too because the crafty Claudius convinced him to poison the tip of his sword which Laertes managed to cut Hamlet with and then and only then does Hamlet finally kill the King Claudius.

It is often a mistaken belief that Hamlet kills Claudius because his father the ghost told him too but that is in the first act and before we ever get to act five where Hamlet does kill Claudius we have seen him go back and forth on what to do. We have seen Hamlet admire Fortinbras for his brashness and imprudence and wish he was more like that and we see that in the end, Hamlet only kills Claudius after discovering he himself has been murdered by that nasty villain Claudius. The play ends with Fortinbras finally arriving on the scene to get some payback only to discover everyone is already dead and himself shows remorse for the noble Hamlet while poor loyal Horatio is left to lament his dead friend. Shakespeare, being the genius that he was, used the traditional Spanish tragedy format and turned it on its head to tell the soap operatic tale of the rich and their eccentric ways. It is perhaps Shakespeare's greatest play and well worth reading.