Hamlet
Act V
•This scene opens in the graveyard and
the gravediggers/clowns are preparing
for Opelia’s burial.
•The first gravedigger questions why
she gets a Christial burial if she
committed suicide.
•This was one of the things that was
brought up in Hamlet’s “To be or not to
be soliloquy.”
•Ophelia is not supposed to have a
Christian burial because she
supposedly committed suicide.
•Claudius tells the priest to give
Ophelia a Christian burial so the
circumstances of her death will be kept
a secret.
•The gravediggers function in the play
as the comic relief after the tension of
Ophelia’s breakdown and death. The
banter and humor of the gravediggers
provides a relaxation of the
atmosphere.
•Hamlet and Horatio walk in. The
gravedigger sings a contemporary song
about having been in love and making
love, and thinking it was great, but
now being dead and in a grave as if
he'd never lived at all.
•As the gravedigger is digging the
grave he is making jokes about
Hamlet’s “madness”. He tosses up a
skull.
•We also learn that the gravedigger has
been at his job since Hamlet was born.
This provides a symbol for Hamlet’s
own mortality. Hamlet is in disguise
and he asks who is to be buried.
•Hamlet talks to the gravedigger about
himself. They have a conversation
about Hamlet losing his wits.
•We, and Hamlet, find out that the
skull belongs to the old court jester,
Yorick. Hamlet remembers him fondly.
•Hamlet and the others hear a funeral
processional and see that the funeral
services have limited Christian
characteristics.
•Laertes is upset by this. He tells the
Priest that he will go to Hell.
•Hamlet and Horatio hide so they can
observe what is going on.
•Hamlet finally learns that it is
Ophelia’s funeral.
•We learn that Gertrude wanted
Ophelia to be Hamlet’s wife.
•This is very interesting because
Polonius and Laertes both told Ophelia
that she would never be able to be with
Hamlet because of the different social
classes.
Gertrude
“Sweets to the sweet? Farewell./I
hoped thou shouldst have been my
Hamlet’s wife;/I thought thy bride-bed
to have deck’d, sweet maid,/And not
have strew’d thy grave.”
V, i, 229-232 (page 262)
•Overcome with grief and emotion,
Laertes jumps into Ophelia’s grave and
embraces her corpse.
•Hamlet comes out of hiding and
Laertes attacks him. They fight in
Ophelia’s grave.
•Hamlet tells them that he loved
Ophelia.
Hamlet
“I lov’d Ophelia. Forty thousand
brothers/Could not, with all their
quantity of love,/Make up my sum!”
V, i, 260-262 (page 264)
•Ophelia’s death is a blow to Hamlet
and produces a moment where he truly
loses control of his emotions. Especially
this on top of the death of his father.
•Hamlet has a complete breakdown.
•Claudius asks Horatio to look after
Hamlet.
•He then tells Laertes to wait to get
Hamlet at the fencing match.
V, ii
•Hamlet tells Horatio about his voyage
with Rosencrantz & Guildenstern.
•He couldn’t sleep one night so he
broke into their cabin and stole the
papers with the order for England to
kill Hamlet.
•Hamlet changed the royal commission
so that it read to be-head Rosencrantz
& Guildenstern instead of himself.
They are now dead.
•The next day was the run-in with the
pirates.
•Hamlet credits divine intervention
with the change of events and his
placement back in Denmark.
Hamlet
“Rashly--/And praised be rashness,
for it let us know,/Our indiscretion
sometime serves us well/When our
deep plots do pall; and that should
learn us/There’s a divinity that shapes
our ends,/Rough-hew them how we
will—
V, i, 6-11 (page 266)
•Horatio is shocked by what Claudius
has done.
•Hamlet is now more determined than
ever to exact his revenge on Claudius.
• He does, however, express his regret
to Horatio about fighting with Laertes.
•Hamlet would like to apologize to
Laertes.
•Osric (a messenger) comes to Hamlet
with a message that Claudius has a bet
of 6 valuable horses against 6 valuable
weapons from France that Hamlet can
beat Laertes in a fencing match.
•Hamlet accepts the challenge. Osric
exits and a Lord enters for confirmation
that Hamlet will fight.
He also comes with 2 other messages:
1.Is Hamlet ready to fight now?
2. Gertrude wants Hamlet to apologize
to Laertes before the duel starts.
•Horatio thinks that Hamlet will lose
the fight.
•Hamlet tells Horatio that he won’t
because he has been practicing since
Laertes went back to France.
•Horatio says if Hamlet has any
reservations about the fencing match to
let him know and he will tell Claudius
that he isn’t ready to fight.
Hamlet
“Not a whit, we defy augury; there’s a
special providence in/ the fall of a
sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come,
if it be not to/ come, it will be now; if it
be not now, yet it will come. The/
readiness is all. Since no man has aught
of what he leaves, what/ is’t to leave
betimes? Let be.” V, i, 202-206 (page 280)
•Quote is another reference to destiny.
•Hamlet knows that death is inevitable.
He is ready for death. Forgotten now
are his former obsessions with
mortality and the hereafter. He is now
willing to accept his fate.
•Hamlet apologizes to Laertes before
the fencing match.
•Laertes says he is satisfied with
Hamlet’s apology.
•The two men select their swords.
•Claudius announces that if Hamlet
gives the first or second hit they will
drink a toast to Hamlet.
•Thus, setting Plan B into action if Plan
A doesn’t work.
•Hamlet gets the first hit. The king
wants to toast.
•Claudius also drops a “pearl” into the
cup of wine for good fortune.
•Hamlet says he will drink later.
•The Queen wants to toast so she
drinks the wine. The king tries to stop
her but he can’t.
•Laertes starts to have second thoughts
about killing Hamlet.
Laertes in an aside: “And yet it is
almost against my conscience.”
V, ii, 292 (page 288)
•Because he is having second thoughts,
Laertes wounds Hamlet illegally (with
the poisoned sword) so that he does not
“chicken” out.
•In their scuffle they switch swords and
Hamlet wounds Laertes with his own
poisoned sword.
Laertes
“I am justly kill’d with mine own
treachery.”
V, ii, 305 (page 288)
•When the two fighting men are parted,
Osric focuses the courts attention on
Gertrude who has fallen.
•Claudius tells them that Gertrude has
fainted because she saw blood.
•Gertrude speaks up and says it is the
drink that makes her fall.
“No, no! the drink, the drink!—O my
dear Hamlet!--/The drink, the drink! I
am poison’d.”
V, ii, 308-9 (page 290)
•She dies after she tells Hamlet her
drink was poisoned.
•Hamlet wants to know what is going
on and orders Horatio to lock the
doors.
•Laertes (who is wounded) is feeling
guilty and tells Hamlet that Hamlet is
slain and that Claudius is to blame for
all of this.
Laertes
“Hamlet, thou art slain;/No medicine
in the world can do thee good…Lo,
here I lie,/Never to rise again. Thy
mother’s poison’d./I can no more. The
King, the King’s to blame.”
V, ii, 312-319 (page 290)
•Hamlet stabs the king and then forces
him to drink the wine.
Hamlet tells Claudius
“Follow my mother!” V, ii, 325 (page
290)
•Claudius dies
•Laertes says that the king was justly
served.
•He then asks Hamlet to exchange
forgiveness with him.
•Laertes dies.
•The poison is starting to work on
Hamlet.
•Horatio wants to die he is so
distraught.
•Hamlet tells him he must live to tell
his story so that his legacy is not
tainted.
•He drinks some of the poison wine to
speed his death.
•Hamlet proposes Prince Fortinbras the
new King of Denmark.
•Hamlet wants Horatio to tell Prince
Fortinbras his story.
•Hamlet dies.
•Horatio
“Good night, sweet prince,/And flights
of angels sing thee to thy rest!”
V, ii, 362-3 (page 292)
•Fortinbras and The Ambassador from
England arrives.
•The Ambassador says that they have
come to late to help Hamlet.
•He also says that Rosencrantz &
Guildenstern are dead.
•Horatio tells Fortinbras the story.
Fortinbras about Hamlet:
“Let four captains/Bear Hamlet, like a
soldier to the stage;/For he was likely,
had he been put on,/To have proved
most royal; and, for his passage,/The
soldiers’ music and the rites of
war/Speak loudly for him.”
V, ii, 403-408 (page 296)
•Fortinbras orders that Hamlet will
have an honorable, soldier’s burial.