Hamlet

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern bring Hamlet back to Claudius. Hamlet, still acting insane, refuses to answer Claudius directly. Instead, he cleverly insults Claudius, but cloaks his digs in what sounds like nonsense. Finally, Hamlet drops a hint about the location of the body. After sending some of his attendants to retrieve it, Claudius tells Hamlet that he’s being sent to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Once Hamlet leaves, Claudius reveals his true plan: as soon as Hamlet arrives in England, he’ll be put to death by the English court.

Hamlet has just hidden Polonius’s body when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive to handle the situation. When they ask Hamlet where he has stashed the body, Hamlet refuses to reveal the location, telling the pair that all their favors for the king will bring them nothing in the end.

A shaken Gertrude tells Claudius what just happened during her encounter with Hamlet. While Gertrude thinks there’s still hope for her son, Claudius is more interested in the matter at hand. He dispatches Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find Hamlet and get rid of Polonius’s body.

In Gertrude’s private chambers, Polonius and the queen hear Hamlet approach. Polonius quickly hides behind a curtain, planning to eavesdrop on the conversation between mother and son. When Hamlet enters, he’s in such a rage that Gertrude cries for help. Hearing this, Polonius echoes her cries for help, revealing his hiding place in the process. Hamlet, thinking that Polonius is actually Claudius, stabs blindly through the curtain, killing Polonius on the spot. Instead of feeling any remorse, Hamlet turns on his mother, attacking her for marrying Claudius so soon after her husband’s death.

Claudius and Polonius plot some more. Claudius wants to send Hamlet to England immediately, but Polonius tells him that he plans to spy on Hamlet’s conversation with Gertrude. He leaves to do just that. Left alone—or so he thinks—Claudius confesses to his crime and tries to pray for forgiveness. Hamlet, on his way to talk to Gertrude, stumbles upon the scene. He’s tempted to kill Claudius right now--after all, he has proof that the king is a murderer—but he realizes that if he kills him while he’s praying, Claudius will go to heaven, and that’s not what Hamlet wants.

It’s the night of the performance of the play, and Hamlet tasks Horatio with gauging Claudius’s reaction to the murder scene. As the courtiers gather to watch, Hamlet acts mad once more, insulting Ophelia with all kinds of indecent taunts. When the play begins, Hamlet carefully observes Claudius. Sure enough, when the fictional king in the play is murdered in much the same way Hamlet’s father was, Claudius flees, clearly rattled. Hamlet confirms the reaction with Horatio, thrilled that he finally has proof Claudius murdered his father.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are having no luck discovering the reason for Hamlet’s madness, so Polonius decides to make good on his plan from Act II, Scene 2. He’ll send Ophelia to talk to the prince, while he and Claudius will watch in secret. When they withdraw, Hamlet enters alone on stage and delivers his famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy. He ponders the nature of death, realizing that while it might seem easier to leave the world behind, death is a great unknown. It’s probably best to just face the troubles you do know, rather than face the uncertainty of the afterlife.