Blog entry #6: Telling Hamlet's Story: 6.21

     In the beginning of the story Hamlet, Hamlet confronts his father's spirit who is also named Hamlet 

too. His father explains that his brother Claudius, who is Hamlet's uncle betrayed and killed him from 

behind (Act 1 Scene 5, Page 60-61). Now Hamlet makes a plan to kill Claudius and avenge his father's 

death. So as a result he starts acting like a madman causing the people he knew to be worried towards 

him. This leads to Hamlet accidentally killing Polonius, who he thought was Claudius behind the 

curtains since they had the same voice (Act 3 Scene 4, page 131). Since Polonius was the father of 

Laertes and Ophelia, this is going to result in a further conflict later on in the story causing Ophelia to 

go mad and drown herself and Laertes starts having a lust for revenge against Hamlet for the loss of his 

sister and father. 

    Furthermore, Hamlet decided to strike Claudius down while he was praying not paying attention to 

what is behind him, but he postponed because he believed killing Claudius while praying will not lead 

to suffer, but ascendance to heaven (Act 3 Scene 3, page 128). Now Hamlet comes up with a next 

scheme to kill Claudius, however this time he is going kill Claudius indirectly instead of directly. His 

plan is to hire a bunch of actors for a play to remind Claudius of how he killed Hamlet's father, thus 

this act will drive Claudius mad to a point where he will feel guilty and confess his guilt to the people 

of Denmark, causing him to lose his throne, wife and power, which will result in him killing himself 

(Act 2 Scene 2, Page 88-89). Now later on going in (Act 4 Scene 7 Page 166), Claudius and Laertes 

come up with a plan to kill Hamlet, the plan is for Laertes to challenge Hamlet to a sword duel where 

Laertes's blades tip will be sharpened and poisoned so that one cut mark of Laertes's blade will kill 

Hamlet immediately and if Hamlet survives the duel Claudius will offer a cup of poisoned whine to 

Hamlet as a celebration gift, so that way Hamlet won't escape death and Polonius's death will be 

avenged. Now in (Act 4 Scene 7 page 167), the queen/Gertrude enters in and explains that Ophelia 

fell into the river while she was sitting on top of a willow tree branch, then the Willow tree branch 

broke causing her to fall in the river and drown. This sort of symbolizes Ophelia being drowned in 

Hamlet's love that it caused her to go mad and end up in drowning in the river unintentionally. She felt 

betrayed. 

    Now the duel between Hamlet and Laertes approaches where the plan to kill Hamlet is set in 

motion. Simultaneously, Fortinbras the prince of Norway is on a march to invade Denmark (In Act 4 

Scene 4, Page 149-151). Once the duel began between Hamlet and Laertes, they displayed good feats 

toward one another, but Hamlet kept scoring hits on Laertes until the duel was halted for a break and 

Claudius offered Hamlet the poisonous whine, which Hamlet then declined and offered to go another 

round against Laertes, so out of appreciation Hamlet's mother Gertrude drank the poisonous whine and 

died and at the same time Laertes landed a strike towards Hamlet infecting him with poison, then 

Hamlet in rage killed Laertes with that same poisonous sword that cut his flesh after that Gertrude 

cried out to Hamlet that the whine was filled with poison so before Hamlet was about to die he 

grabbed the poisonous whine and chugged it right into Claudius's mouth and into his throat finally 

avenging his father's death. and now mothers death. Once Hamlet fell breathing his last breathe, 

Fortinbras enters and Horatio explains what happened in the courtyard (Act 5 Scene 2, Pages 193-

197). 

    The Story Hamlet was full of betrayal, for example...

• Claudius kills his Brother King Hamlet/Hamlet's father.
• Ophelia's love for Hamlet was betrayed because her father and her loss of love towards Hamlet died all because of Hamlet going mad.
• Hamlet felt like he was being spied by his two friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern under Claudius's orders.
• Gertrude drank the whine which was presented by Claudius for Hamlet, but she didn't know it was filled with poison to kill Hamlet, so she died instead.