Hamlet Act V

Act Five, Scene One –Two gravediggers (clowns) are digging out Ophelia's grave. They discuss the fact that Ophelia drowned herself, and therefore should not receive a Christian burial under Christian law. However, the one gravedigger points out that the coroner has declared it a natural death rather than a suicide, and therefore they must dig the grave for her. –Hamlet overhears the first gravedigger singing to himself and remarks on the fact that the man is so cheerful at his occupation. Horatio tells him that it must come from doing the job for such a long time. Hamlet approaches the man and asks him whose grave it is. The gravedigger, taking every word literally, tells him, "Mine, sir" ( ). Hamlet finally gives up asking and instead inquires for news about Prince Hamlet while pretending to be someone else. –The gravedigger tells him that Hamlet was sent to England because he was mad. He then informs Hamlet that a body will last in the grave for eight or nine years at the most. He picks up a skull and shows it to Hamlet, telling him it has been in the earth for twenty-three years. Hamlet asks whose skull it is, and is shocked to learn that it is the skull of Yorick, a jester who entertained him as a youth. He comments that even parts of Alexander the Great's body might now be used as a flask stopper and they would never know it.

Act Five, Scene One continued –Hamlet and Horatio run and hide when they hear Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, and other attendants arriving. Hamlet wonders whose corpse they are carrying with them to the grave. He overhears Laertes arguing with the priest about the last rites. Due to the strange manner of Ophelia's death, the priest will only allow the body to be buried in holy ground, but he refuses to read her the prayers. Hamlet soon realizes that the body is that of Ophelia. –Laertes is so overcome with emotion once the coffin has been placed into the grave that he leaps in after it. –Hamlet, seeing this, reveals himself and jumps into the grave as well. Laertes immediately grabs Hamlet by the throat and starts to choke him. –Claudius order the other men present to pull them apart and Hamlet shouts that he loved Ophelia more than forty thousand of her brothers combined. –Hamlet leaves and Horatio follows him.

Act Five, Scene Two –Hamlet tells Horatio what really happened on the way to England. He rose on night and stole the letters that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were taking to the King of England. –The letters told the king to kill Hamlet and listed several reasons why this would benefit both nations. Hamlet immediately wrote out several new letters and sealed them using his signet. The new letters ordered that the two men accompanying him should be put to death. –Hamlet is not at all upset about ordering his two "friends" to die in England since, "they did make love to this employment" (5.2.58). Horatio warns Hamlet that Claudius will soon discover what has happened when news arrives from England.

Act Five, Scene Two Continued –A man named Osric arrives and tells Hamlet that he has news from the king for him. Hamlet plays a game with the man, telling him to alternately put on and take off his hat. Osric finally gets frustrated with the game and informs Hamlet that Laertes, whom he describes in glowing terms, has placed a wager with Claudius. Claudius has bet Laertes that he cannot beat Hamlet by at least three hits in a fencing match with twelve passes. Hamlet agrees to the match and orders Osric to have them bring out the foils. –A lord soon enters and tells Hamlet that everything is prepared and that they are waiting for Hamlet to come. He further tells Hamlet that Gertrude wishes that he would treat Laertes with respect and courtesy, to which Hamlet agrees. –Horatio tells Hamlet that he will lose but Hamlet tells him that he has been in continual practice since Laertes left for France. Horatio again tries to dissuade him from fencing with Laertes, and again Hamlet tells him that he will go and fight.

Act Five, Scene Two Continued –Claudius and the rest of the court arrive and Claudius orders Hamlet to greet Laertes. Hamlet offers Laertes an apology for killing Polonius and blames the act on his madness. Laertes stiffly asserts that his honor is still at stake and that he must therefore have his revenge. They then call for the foils and prepare for the match. –Claudius orders his attendants to bring him a cask of wine. He then announces that if Hamlet is able to score a hit in the first, second or third exchange then he will drink some wine and drop a pearl of exceptional value into the cup for Hamlet. Claudius then drinks to Hamlet as a salute for good luck and orders them to begin.

Act Five, Scene Two Continued –Hamlet and Laertes fight until Hamlet shouts, "One" ( ). Laertes disputes the hit and Osric decides in favor of Hamlet. Claudius halts the match and drops a pearl into his wine cup. He then offers the cup to Hamlet, who refuses to take it and tells him that he would rather continue the match. They fight and Hamlet again claims a hit that Laertes grants him. –Gertrude takes the cup with the pearl in it and offers to drink for Hamlet. Claudius begs her not to, but she ignores him and drinks anyway, thereby ingesting the poison that Claudius had planned to give to Hamlet. –Laertes meanwhile has poisoned his rapier's tip and in the next scuffle he manages to wound Hamlet. They continue fighting and Hamlet accidentally exchanges rapiers with Laertes after which he wounds him as well. –Both men stop fighting when they realize that Gertrude has fallen onto the ground. She tells Hamlet, "The drink, the drink - I am poisoned" ( ) before she dies. Laertes also falls to the ground from the poison he received when Hamlet wounded him. He tells Hamlet that both of them are poisoned to death and blames the king for everything.

Act Five, Scene Two Continued –Hamlet, realizing that the point of the rapier is envenomed, slashes at Claudius and wounds him with it. The courtiers cry out, "Treason, treason!" ( ), but they cannot stop Hamlet who has also grabbed the poisoned wine and is making Claudius drink it. Claudius quickly dies from the poison. Laertes, still barely alive, tells Hamlet that he forgives him for Polonius' death before he too dies. –Hamlet orders Horatio to stay alive and report everything he knows to the public. Horatio instead has grabbed the cup and is preparing to commit suicide, but at Hamlet's plea he relinquishes the poison. –Osric enters the room and tells them that Fortinbras has arrived with his army. –Hamlet gives Fortinbras his vote to become the next King of Denmark before he dies. –Fortinbras and the English ambassadors arrive together. Fortinbras looks over the scene of carnage and compares it too a massacre. –The Englishmen inform Horatio that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been put to death. –Horatio takes charge and tells Fortinbras and the ambassadors to put the bodies on a stage in view of the public so that he may tell the full story of what has happened. Fortinbras agrees with this and orders his men to obey Horatio. He compares the scene to a battlefield and ends the play by ordering the soldiers to shoot their guns in honor of Hamlet's death.