Hamlet

Hamlet isn't buried. He dies at the end and is carried out of the room respectfully.

Technically, King Cladius Kills Gertrude in Hamlet, but not intentionally. King Cladius poisons the wine for Hamlet to drink but he refuses it to keep fencing Laertes but when hamlet makes the second strike the Queen wants to drink to him and when she does she drinks from the poisoned cup and dies.

he trusts no one. To throw everyone off the scent of his search for the truth of the ghost's statement that his uncle killed his father, he decides to act mad. Not necessarily a clever strategy, but certainly an entertaining one.

Gertrude's account of Ophelia's death is not clear on the point. Her account says that Ophelia was hanging flowers on a tree branch overhanging a stream. The branch broke and she fell in. She floated downstream singing until her clothes became waterlogged and pulled her under, thus drowning her.

Here are some approaches:

1. The gravedigger's approach. If she goes to the water, she drowns herself. Had she not wanted to drown she would have made some effort to get to shore, but she was happy just to lie there. Therefore she must have intended to die.

2. The insanity defence. But Ophelia is mad, and not in her proper senses. She may not have understood that she would ultimately have drowned. She did not try to escape because she didn't understand, not because she wanted to die, so it's not suicide.

3. Suicide traditions. It may sound strange but women who committed suicide because they were pregnant and unwed used to commit suicide by throwing themselves in the river. This was a tradition. According to some people, the fact that she drowned in the river tells the whole story. Who else did you think she was singing about when she sang "Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me, you promis'd me to wed.' He replies 'So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, if thou hadst not come to my bed.'"?

4. Sparing the feelings of the bereaved. Gertrude is not telling this tale just to Claudius, but also to Laertes, who is still reeling from the death of his father. In order to spare Laertes' feelings, she is leaving out details which would confirm it as suicide. Likewise, when the priest says, "Her death was doubtful", he really means, "I have not got the slightest doubt that your wicked sister killed herself."

The situation may well be that Ophelia's death was an accident, but that everyone around believed that it was suicide. Thus poor Ophelia is deprived of a Christian burial which, according to the beliefs of the time, would have denied her access to heaven. She is an innocent victim of those who should have cared for her (her father, her brother, Hamlet, the Queen, the church) in death as in life.

Hamlet is based off of a true story, but it is not the same and some say different things. One person says that there was a danish scholar who wrote down the story of "Amlet," but the debate continues. Short answer, yes. Sorry i dont know more about WHO he is

Reynaldo is being sent to spy on Laertes. Polonius authorizes him to accuse Laertes of all kinds of immoral behaviour to find out from his associates whether he is in fact involved in it. The fact that this will tarnish Laertes's reputation in the process does not seem to bother him.

Fortune is characterized as a malicious or capricious prostitute. In Hamlet's discussion with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Guildenstern starts with the metaphor "On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.", and so they explore just what part of Fortune they might be worn on and conclude that their fortunes are middling so they are worn in her middle, whereupon Hamlet says "In the secret parts of Fortune? True, she is a strumpet." This might be thought to be a throwaway joke except that the First Player's speech about Hecuba includes the line, "Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune."

In his famous soliloquy Hamlet talks about "the slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune", suggesting that Fortune is malicious. His line to Horatio, that he is "a man that Fortune's buffets and rewards have ta'en with equal thanks" suggests a more equanimical view of Fortune. He goes on to say "Blest are those whose blood and judgment are so well commingled that they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger to sound what stop she please." This echoes Romeo's line "O I am Fortune's fool!"

She drowns after going crazy. Many think it is a suicide.

The Ghost used to be when he was alive Hamlet's father Hamlet Sr., who was the king of Denmark. Now he is dead and spending all day in Purgatory having his sins purged and the hours between midnight and dawn lurking about the battlements of Elsinore hoping that someone will push his son in his direction.

When Hamlet encounters his ghost, the spirit tells him of his sad fate - he was poisoned by his own brother in order to usurp the crown. Hamlet's father then tells him to seek revenge by killing his uncle, who has stolen his crown and his wife, the Queen.

Revenge is what drives the majority of the action of the play. It is the obligation Hamlet is given by the ghost of his father early on in the play and shapes most of the interactions between characters from that moment on. The complicated morality of revenge is a large part of Hamlet's torment. The revenge motive is what makes Hamlet "feign" madness and establishes the chain of events that leads to Ophelia's madness and death, as well as the enormous body count that amasses by the end of the play.

When Hamlet decides to put on an "antic disposition" he is suggesting that he should act like a madman. In Shakespeare's time antic meant disturbingly or even threateningly bizarre or irrational. By acting crazy, Hamlet hopes to confuse the king and make him uneasy.

A number of reasons:

1. A king is surrounded by bodyguards who might prevent him from succeeding.

2. The ghost might have been lying in which case it would be murder.

3. Hamlet wants to kill him at the right time.

His name is Polonius, except in the First Quarto when his name's Corambis.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern also act as advisors in a way. They're basically summoned by Claudius to be advisors on Hamlet's mental state.

Initially Hamlet is uncertain about the honesty of the ghost. Then he loses an opportunity when he decides not to kill Claudius in the confessional because his soul will go to heaven. Then he becomes involved in plot that finds him bound or transported away from Claudius for a good portion of the play. He is also filled with self-doubt about his ability to kill him, and the nature of his existence, which causes delay.

Polonius dies.

Ophelia dies.

Claudius dies.

Hamlet dies.

Hamlet returns home for his father's funeral.

Hamlet stages a play to prove Claudius's guilt.

Ophelia drowns in a river.

Hamlet and Laertes duel.

Hamlet returns to Denmark to bury his father.

Hamlet kills Polonius.

Ophelia is found dead.

Laertes and Hamlet duel.

They both love Ophelia. They both seek vengeance, and find that the quest for vengeance pushes them toward the throne of Denmark. They end up getting what they want, but dying in the process. They may both be seen as quasi-heroic protagonists.

Hamlet kills Claudius by stabbing him with the poisoned sword Laertes carried and by forcing Claudius to drink the dregs of the poisoned drink which killed Gertrude.

The ghost warns hamlet not to do anything to his mother, but to "leave her to heaven".

Hamlet was a mass murderer. First he stabbed Polonius while he was evesdropping behind a curtain. Then he forged an order for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be put to death. Laertes was next murdered by Hamlet in the fencing match where Laertes had the posioned sword. Hamlet ended up with it and cut Laertes. Finally, Hamlet killed Claudius.

That's five people.

Five.

O that this too too solid flesh would melt (Act 1 Scene2)

O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I (Act 2 Scene 2)

To be, or not to be (Act 3 Scene 1)

Now might I do it pat (Act 3 Scene 3)

How all occasions do inform against me (Act 4 Scene 4)

What he says immediately before she utters this line is "Forgive me this my virtue for in the fatness of these pursy times virtue itself of vice must pardon beg." but surely Hamlet's smug belief in his own virtue or his cynical view of the world cannot have cleft her heart in twain. However, Hamlet has just completed an extended rant, interrupted by the appearance of the ghost, in which he is urging his mother to break off marital relations with her husband the king. Has he persuaded her that being a good wife to Claudius is a bad thing by comparing Claudius's picture to that of Hamlet's father? Surely not. What does Hamlet tell Gertrude that she didn't know before? "Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother." says Hamlet, and Gertrude immediately seizes upon the new information. "As kill a king?" she says. It takes a while for this to sink in and for the truth of the accusation to dawn on her, and all the while Hamlet is ranting away. She wants him to stop so she can think about this, and to evaluate her position: she has unwittingly married her husband's murderer. This is what has cleft her heart in twain

Claudius tells us the reasons for his crime in Act 3 Scene 3. "I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder: my crown, my own ambition, and my queen." So, his motives were to become king, to become more important and powerful than he was, and to marry Gertrude whom he loved.

Prior to Hamlet's entry into Gertrude's (Hamlet's mother) chamber, Polonius is having a discussion with the queen. As Hamlet enters his mother's room rather abruptly, Polonius chooses to hide behind a tapestry on the wall. When Hamlet begins to threaten his mother, Polonius believes Hamlet is trying to kill her, and so Polonius cries for help. Hamlet "thinking it was King Claudius" (it is unclear as to whether he actually believes its the King or not), stabs Polonius through the tapestry, killing him. As he dies he lets out his iconically obvious line "Oh, I am slain".

Claudius was suspicious that Hamlet knew of his crime after the players had put on their show. After Claudius hears that Hamlet had stabbed Polonius, Claudius was certain that Hamlet was trying to kill him. To protect himself, he sends Hamlet to England with a letter and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to deliver him. The letter contains instructions for the king of England to have Hamlet executed.

In the Old Testament (Judges 11 ), Jephthah vows to sacrifice to the Lord the first living thing that comes out of his house if the Lord will give him the victory of the Ammonites. Unfortunately, the first living thing to come out was his own daughter. Thus he was under oath to offer his daughter as a burnt offering.

In the same way, Hamlet is insinuating that Polonius is will to sacrifice his own daughter for personal gain.