HAMLET SCRIPT
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All is not well in Denmark, in fact, hardly anything is well
From Hamlet’s P.O.V. – if it could go wrong – it has
His father, whom he loved dearly, died 2 months ago
It came as a shock to Hamlet, but a greater shock followed
His mother, Gertrude, has married again and of all people – she has married her
dead husband’s brother, Claudius!
 Hamlet is having a very hard time dealing with this
 Gertrude tries to talk to him:
o “Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, and let thine eye look like a
friend on Denmark. Do not forever with thy vailed lids seek for thy noble
father in the dust.”
 Hamlet has a funny feeling about the whole thing, but he just can’t pin anything
down
 The appearance of his father’s ghost pins it down in no time flat!
 Ghost appeared several times to guards while on night watch
o “Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Barnardo, on their
watch in the dead waste and middle of the night, been thus encountered. A
figure like your father.”
 Ghost refused to speak
 Guards pass on problem to Hamlet – because it was his father
 Hamlet goes to the battlements with Horatio to see what’s going on
 Sure enough… Hamlet sees ghost and it speaks to him
 Tells him he is Hamlet’s father and come back to urge Hamlet to avenge his
murder
 Not just his death – his murder!
“I am thy father’s spirit, doomed for a certain time to walk the night, and for
the day confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes done in my days of
nature are burnt and purged away.”
 Murderer is Claudius
 Same Claudius who wasted no time in getting the recently bereaved and very
beautiful Gertrude to say “I do”.
 Hamlet is upset by this news
 But it confirms his uneasy feelings about Claudius
 Decides to gather evidence of Claudius’s guilt – so he can’t be accused of making
it up
 By the way, Claudius does not seem to be that bad for a murderer!
 He is very affectionate to Gertrude and very efficient when dealing with the
Kingdom
 To confuse matters, and to keep Claudius off guard, Hamlet acts as if he’s gone
mad
 (He seems to have a natural talent for madness and is very convincing!)
 Claudius is worried and asks Hamlet’s old friends (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern)
to keep an eye on him
 Someone else has been keeping an eye on Hamlet – Ophelia (his former girlfriend)
 She is very worried because they seemed to be having a good relationship at one
point – but now Hamlet seems to have fallen out of love and into madness
 (That would worry anyone!)
 When Claudius and Polonius (Ophelia’s father) secretly watch the two together –
Hamlet’s behaviour convinces them that he really has gone mad
 The 2 men believe two very different thinks about Hamlet’s reason for madness
though:
o Polonius believes Hamlet has gone mad because Ophelia was banned from
seeing him
o Claudius believes that Hamlet has gone mad because he has found out that
his father was murdered by him
 Claudius thus decides that he better ship Hamlet out of there
 Things are getting pretty grim around Elsinore
 Luckily a group of travelling actors (or players) arrive at the castle
 Their arrival perks Hamlet up and gives him a very clever idea
o “I’ll have these players play something like the murder of my father before
mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks, I’ll tent him to the quick. The play’s the
thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”
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He persuades the actors to perform a play about the murder of a king by his brother
Hamlet plans to watch Claudius’s reaction to the performance very closely
He knows that Claudius will give himself away if he is guilty!
His plan works.
Claudius becomes more and more uncomfortable as the play goes on and just as
the actors get to the part where the villain murders the good guy – Claudius orders
them to stop
(This is just a little too close for comfort!)
Claudius’s reaction confirms Hamlet’s suspicions
Now Hamlet knows the truth – and Claudius knows he knows the truth and Hamlet
knows Claudius knows he knows the truth
(If things were tense before, imagine what it’s like now!)
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After the play, Hamlet visits his mother Gertrude in her room
Gertrude is upset at Hamlet for upsetting the King with the play
During their argument, Hamlet hears a noise behind a curtain
Thinking that it is his uncle – and this is a great chance to get rid of him – Hamlet
runs his sword through the curtain ------- and kills the person there!
 OOPS! No uncle there though – just poor old nosy ---- and now dead ---POLONIUS
o “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. I took thee for thy better.”
 This little accident gives Claudius a valid reason for ordering Hamlet out of the
country – accompanied by a couple of fine fellows who are being paid to make
sure he doesn’t come back! (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern)
 The death of Polonius is also the last straw for Ophelia
 She goes mad herself and starts singing and talking to herself in gibberish
 Eventually, her body is found drowned in a local stream
o “Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, pulled the poor wretch from
her melodious lay to muddy death.”
 It’s almost a relief to everyone that she is out of her misery ---- until Laertes (her
brother) returns home
 He is definitely not relieved!
 He has come home for the funeral of his father and finds his sister dead now as
well!
 Claudius of course, wastes no time in placing the blame for both deaths on Hamlet
– firing up his hatred for his onetime best bud
 Meanwhile, Hamlet – ship captured by pirates – discovers a letter ordering his
execution
 Hamlet returns to Denmark safely
 He is devastated when he learns of the death of Ophelia (he really did love her –
deep down!)
 He tries to be nice to Laertes and offers his condolences but Laertes will have none
of it
 Laertes wants Hamlet’s blood
o Jump in grave!
 Claudius arranges for the two boys to participate in an exhibition sword fight
 The plan is that Laertes will use a poisoned sword – so that even with one cut –
Hamlet will die (satisfying Laertes’ need for revenge and satistifying Claudius’s
need to get rid of Hamlet)
 Hamlet doesn’t really want to fight his former friend – but Laertes won’t change
his mind and so the fight is on!
 Although the match is supposed to be friendly – it doesn’t take Hamlet long to
realize that Laertes is serious – DEADLY serious
 Claudius decides to take no chances either
 He prepares a cup of poisoned wine that he keeps at his side during the exhibition
 His plan is that he will give Hamlet the wine if Hamlet is not injured during the
fight
 The duel is fast and furious!
 Hamlet wounds Laertes twice and then is wounded himself ---- with the
POISONED SWORD
 In the scuffle, they drop their swords and when they pick them up again ---HAMLET has the POISONED SWORD
 During the fight, Queen Gertrude gets quite thirsty and although Claudius tries to
convince her to not to she drinks the poisoned wine --- (he couldn’t give himself
away after all!)
 Just after Gertrude sips the poisoned wine, Hamlet wounds Laertes with the
poisoned sword and as Laertes lay dying on the ground, the Queen COLLAPSES
too
 With his dying breath, Laertes confesses that the sword is poisoned and that the
King is to blame for everything – including the Queen being poisoned
 Laertes also tells Hamlet that the sword was poisoned
o “Hamlet, thou art slain; No medicine in the world can do thee good; In thee
there is not half an hour of life – the teacherous instrument is in thy hand!”
 CRAZY with revenge - the dying Hamlet wounds the King with the poisoned
sword and then forces him to drink the poisoned wine (just for good measure!)
 As if there aren’t enough dead bodies at this point – Horatio, Hamlet’s loyal friend,
offers to drink the poisoned wine too
 But Hamlet tells him he must live to tell the truth of what happened
o “Horatio, I am dead. Thou livest; report me and my cause aright to the
unsatisfied.”
 Just at that point – FORTINBRAS – a local Norwegian prince, arrives and with his
dying breath, Hamlet gives him the throne of Denmark ---
BOY TIMING IS EVERYTHING!
THE END!