# data[].attributes.body
Inciting incident

The inciting incident that starts off the play is when King Hamlet dies and his wife Gertrude marries the late King's brother Claudius who is now King of Denmark.  After the King's death, his ghost appears for the first time outside the castle. By the end of Act 1, we know that the King was murdered by his brother who is now King of Denmark.

Summary for Act 1

Two guards are outside the castle of Denmark when they see the ghost of the late King Hamlet. A guard named Horatio informs the late King’s son, Hamlet, about the ghost. The next day the ghost appears again and it speaks to Hamlet about his death and tells him his Uncle Claudius who is now King of Denmark killed him. The ghost wants revenge and so does Hamlet, but he doesn't have any proof so he is thinking of ways to get the proof he needs and avenge his father’s death.

Quote 1 - Enter GHOST,

MARCELLUS
Peace, break thee off. Look where it comes again!

BARNARDO
In the same figure like the king that’s dead.

MARCELLUS
(to HORATIO) Thou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio.

BARNARDO
Looks it not like the king? Mark it, Horatio.

HORATIO
Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.

HORATIO
What art thou that usurp’st this time of night
Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee, speak.

MARCELLUS
It is offended.

BARNARDO
See, it stalks away.

HORATIO
Stay! Speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!

Exit GHOST
Act 1 Scene 1    38-49

Context - Marcellus, Bernardo, Horatio and Francisco are out guarding the castle of Denmark. There was a commotion the other night of a "ghost" which Marcellus and Bernardo have seen, but no one believes them so they decided to bring Horatio to see for himself. Once the ghost appears, it's dressed as the late King of Denmark and they are all able to see him. They try to make the ghost speak but it disappeared.

Quote 2

GHOST
I find thee apt,
And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.
'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forgèd process of my death
Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth,The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.

HAMLET

O my prophetic soul! My uncle?
Act 1 Scene 5    31-41

Context -  Hamlet is outside of the castle and sees the ghost. The ghost tells him that his death wasn't caused by a snake bite, His uncle Claudius poisoned him and took over the throne of Denmark. After having this information, Hamlet doesn't know what to do. Should he avenge his father and get Claudius to confess of his crimes? Or should he wait until he has more evidence?

# data[].attributes.body
Rising Action

Hamlet decides to invite actors to the castle and perform the play named The Mouse Trap. The ending scene in the mousetrap upsets King Claudius because it reenacts exactly how he killed his brother. After seeing his reaction, Hamlet follows Claudius to his room, thinking about killing him, but he doesn't. Claudius was confessing his crimes and if Hamlet killed him, Claudius would go to heaven, all he has to do now is wait.

Summary for Act 2

Laertes is off to England after his father Polonius gave him very good advice. King Claudius and Queen Gertrude are worried about Hamlet, he has been acting strange around them so the King and Queen Recruit his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to see what is wrong and help him loosen up and be Happy. Meanwhile, Hamlet decides the best way to see if Claudius killed his father if he reacts to the play that reenacts the scene of his father’s death.

CLAUDIUS

So much from the' understanding of himself,
I cannot dream of. I entreat you both
That, being of so young days brought up with him
And since so neighbored to his youth and 'havior,
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
Some little time so by your companies
To draw him on to pleasures and to gather,
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus
That, opened, lies within our remedy.
ROSENCRANTZ

Both your majesties
Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.

GUILDENSTERN

But we both obey
And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
To lay our service freely at your feet
To be commanded.

CLAUDIUS

Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

Act 2 Scene 2   5-18   27-32

# data[].attributes.body
Climax

The climax begins when Polonius is listening in on a conversation behind the curtains in Hamlet’s room that Hamlet and his mother are having. He makes a slight movement and Hamlet thinks it's Claudius behind the curtains, Hamlet stabs Polonius and he dies.

Summary Act 3

Polonius and Claudius listen in on Hamlet contemplating suicidal thoughts, Hamlet hurts Ophelia by saying some nasty things to her. Claudius wants to send Hamlet off to England because of his dangerous and absurd behaviour. The actors perform the play mousetrap and Claudius looks upset when the reenactment of King Hamlet’s death. Claudius runs to his room and confesses his crimes, while Hamlet is listening. Hamlet contemplates killing Claudius but he will go to heaven to confess his crimes.  Hamlet talks to his mother in his room and Polonius is hiding and listening to their conversation. Polonius makes a small noise behind the curtain and Hamlet thinks it’s Claudius, Hamlet stabs the curtain and Polonius dies.

HAMLET

To be, or not to be? That is the question—
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.—Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia!—Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
(Act 3 Scene 1 56 - 90)

This is Hamlet's famous soliloquy in the story. Hamlet talks about life and death, he describes life as miserable and not worth living. He contemplates on committing suicide but doesn't because of his fears of hta happens after death.

# data[].attributes.body
Falling Action

The falling action is when Hamlet gets punished for the death of Polonius, by being sent to England. Ophelia goes mad after her father dies, and Laertes returns to Denmark with an army to avenge his father.

Summary Act 4

The castle is informed of the murder of Polonius, Hamlet’s friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ask where Polonius’s body is, but he doesn’t tell them in fear that they were sent by Claudius. Claudius finds out where the body is, Hamlet is sent to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who are ordered to kill him. Fortinbras crosses over Denmark to get to Poland to get a small piece of land. Hamlet is fascinated that these men are going to fight over a small patch of land, and get killed but Hamlet couldn’t kill Claudius. Ophelia goes crazy and Laertes comes back from England to avenge his father. Claudius convinces him to get revenge on Hamlet with him. Horatio gets a message from Hamlet saying he was taken by pirates and is now coming back to Denmark. Claudius and Laertes plan to duel Hamlet with a poisoned sword and make him drink poisoned wine when he arrives.

HAMLET

I’ll be with you straight. Go a little before.
HAMLET

Exeunt all except HAMLET
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th' event—
A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward—I do not know
Why yet I live to say “This thing’s to do,”
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do ’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me.
Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honor’s at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father killed, a mother stained,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep—while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? Oh, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
(Act 4, Scene 4,   30 - 65 )

This quote in Act 4 describes how Hamlet is feeling about taking revenge for his father. He says that he overthinks everything and that he is a coward for doing not killing claudius yet. There is nothing stopping Hamlet to kill the king, he is just afraid. After seeing Fortinbras army going to avenge a piece of small land for the price of thousands of soldiers, this motivates Hamlet into saying that if his thoughts are not violent there worthless.

# data[].attributes.body
End

Laertes and Claudius plan on killing Hamlet in this scene by a poisoned sword and poisoned wine. But it ends up backfiring and things don’t go to plan.

Summary Act 5

Hamlet and Horatio witness the funeral of Ophelia, Latres and Hamlet get in a fight but are quickly pulled apart. Laertes and Hamlet start a duel, Laertes dies by the poisoned sword, Gertrude accidentally drinks from the poisoned wine, Hamlet kills Claudius with the poisoned sword and Hamlet kills himself with Laertes poisoned sword.

HAMLET
Let me see. (takes the skull) Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. —Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chapfallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that.—Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.
(Act 5, Scene 1 159 - 172 )

In this quote Hamlet realises that death is inevitable, a person will turn into dust, mud and bones, that others use the mud to patch up holes in their homes and these people will be forgotten.

# data[].attributes.body
The theme of revenge is prominent throughout the play of Hamlet. Here are 5 quotes that explain the theme of revenge in Hamlet.

GHOST

“I find thee apt, And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.
'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forgèd process of my death Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.”(Act 1 Scene 5 Page 2) lines 33-40

This quote is where we first see the theme of revenge in Hamlet. In this quote Hamlet’s father’s ghost appears and tells him that he didn’t die from a snake bite, his brother Claudius killed him. The ghost of his father wants revenge and he wants Hamlet to avenge his untimely death for him.

HAMLET

Ay, so. Good-bye to you.
Now I am alone.
Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wanned,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing—
For Hecuba!
What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba
That he should weep for her? What would he do
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appall the free,
(Act 2, Scene 2,   507 - 523 )

This quote from Act 2 Scene 2 expresses the theme of revenge that pushes Hamlet to get justice for his father’s murder. In this quote, Hamlet is upset that the Actors have more emotions when there acting something that is not real, and Hamlet can not act to avenge his father, the late King Hamlet. While comparing himself to the actors, Hamlet becomes angry which then motivates to avenge his father.

CLAUDIUS

Thanks, dear my lord.

Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not.
Though inclination be as sharp as will,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursèd hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,
To be forestallèd ere we come to fall
Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up.
My fault is past. But oh, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn, “Forgive me my foul murder”?
HAMLET

Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying.
And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven.
And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned.
A villain kills my father, and, for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.
Oh, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread,
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May.
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought
'Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged
( Act 3, Scene 3   37 - 52      76 - 85  )

In this quote, Hamlet finds Claudius all alone confessing that he killed the late King Hamlet. This would be the perfect time to avenge his father, Claudius is all alone. But, something holds back Hamlet yet again, if he kills Claudius while he is confessing his sins and praying to God, Claudius will go to heaven. Hamlet decides to wait again when he would commit the murder of Claudius.

HAMLET

Of thinking too precisely on th' event—
A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward—I do not know
Why yet I live to say “This thing’s to do,”
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do ’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me.
Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honor’s at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father killed, a mother stained,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep—while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? Oh, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
( Act 4, Scene 4     40 - 65 )

After hearing about Fortinbrases army, he is going to take this small useless piece of land in Poland, it makes Hamlet think that Fortinbras has hundreds of soldiers that could all die for this small piece of land. Hamlet has the courage now to kill Claudius by saying if his thoughts aren’t violent there worthless.

# data[].attributes.body
The downfall of Hamlet is because of how idealistic he is, how he thinks everything is inevitable, and how he overthinks everything

When Claudius admits that he killed his brother, he was praying for God to forgive his sins, Hamlet was listening in on this and he finally had proof that Claudius killed his father

Hamlet had the chance to kill him, but he didn’t because Claudius was confessing his sins and if Hamlet killed him then Claudius would go to heaven

CLAUDIUS
Thanks, dear my lord.
Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not.
Though inclination be as sharp as will,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursèd hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,
To be forestallèd ere we come to fall
Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up.
My fault is past. But oh, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn, “Forgive me my foul murder”?
That cannot be, since I am still possessed
Of those effects for which I did the murder:
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardoned and retain th' offense?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offense’s gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above.
There is no shuffling. There the action lies
In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limèd soul that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels. Make assay.
Bow, stubborn knees, and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe.
All may be well. (kneels)

HAMLET
o take him in the purging of his soul
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
No.
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed,
At game a-swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in ’t—
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
And that his soul may be as damned and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
( Act 3, Scene 3   86 - 96 )

Hamlet had the perfect moment to kill him, there were no guards and there were no people around

Hamlet being idealistic makes him procrastinate in killing Claudius

Hamlets think that everything is inevitable like in a quote from Act 1 Scene 4 he says

HAMLET
As in their birth (wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin),
By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
Or by some habit that too much o'erleavens
The form of plausive manners—that these men,
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
Being nature’s livery or fortune’s star,
Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo)
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault. The dram of evil
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
To his own scandal.
( Act 1 Scene 4   29 - 40 )

In this quote, Hamlet says when people are born with birth defects or if they have a weird habit people don’t look at them normally, having these qualities people only see the bad and not the good

This shows his flaw of thinking everything is inevitable

The last quality of Hamlet contributing to his own downfall is how he overthinks everything.

HAMLET

30I’ll be with you straight. Go a little before.
Exeunt all except HAMLET

Of thinking too precisely on th' event—
A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward—I do not know
Why yet I live to say “This thing’s to do,”
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
45To do ’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me.
Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
50Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
55When honor’s at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father killed, a mother stained,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep—while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
60That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? Oh, from this time forth,
65My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
( Act 4, Scene 4    40 -65 )

In this quote, Hamlet says that he over thought everything, Claudius could have died and he wouldn’t have to live life like a coward because he didn’t kill King Claudius

Due to Hamlet being idealistic, thinking that everything is inevitable, and by overthinking, this all was a factor to his Downfall

Even though Hamlet was a hero, he had many flaws which ultimately resulted in his downfall

# data[].attributes.body
At the beginning of Hamlet, we know Claudius as the King of Denmark, he wants power, he is manipulative and very strategic and smart.

The way he handles issues like with Fortinbras, he handled it in a diplomatic way, he was professional and thought of a solution.

Claudius lacks morals and one example of that is when he married his dead brother’s wife, and he killed his brother to be King of Denmark.

Claudius manipulates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet

One quote that shows that Claudius is professional is when Fortinbras was going to invade Denmark.

“Thus much the business is: we have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras—
Who, impotent and bedrid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew’s purpose—to suppress
His further gait herein, in that the levies,
The lists, and full proportions are all made
Out of his subject; and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway,
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king more than the scope
Of these dilated articles allow. (gives them a paper)
Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.”
( Act 1 Scene 2    27 - 49 )

This quote shows how cunning Claudius truly is, he deals with his problems straight up and knows how to make lasting bonds with nations.

After Hamlet puts on the play called the mousetrap where the King kills his brother to take the throne, which mirrors what Claudius did to the former King Hamlet, he runs to his room and confesses his crimes.

CLAUDIUS
Thanks, dear my lord.
Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not.
Though inclination be as sharp as will,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursèd hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,
To be forestallèd ere we come to fall
Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up.
My fault is past. But oh, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn, “Forgive me my foul murder”?
That cannot be, since I am still possessed
Of those effects for which I did the murder:
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardoned and retain th' offense?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offense’s gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above.
There is no shuffling. There the action lies
In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limèd soul that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels. Make assay.
Bow, stubborn knees, and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe.
All may be well. (kneels)
( Act 3, Scene 3      38 - 72 )

Claudius genuinely did feel bad about his brother’s death and feels that he should go to hell for the crimes he committed

Claudius tries to pray so that God can forgive him for his actions but he always wanted the throne, he always wanted the power and he always wanted to be King of Denmark, he was happy, which means he didn’t really pray for forgiveness seriously, he doesn’t have good intentions

The last quote shows how manipulative Claudius was and how this ultimately led his plans to backfire and kill himself

LAERTES

I will do ’t.
And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of a mountebank,
So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all simples that have virtue
Under the moon, can save the thing from death
That is but scratched withal. I’ll touch my point
With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly
It may be death.

Claudius puts an idea for revenge in Laertes’s head in order to avenge his father’s death by the hands of Hamlet

Claudius wants Laertes to duel Hamlet with a poisoned sword, so if Hamlet touches the tip he dies instantly, or if that plan fails they could try making him drink poisoned wine which will kill him

When it comes time for Hamlet and Laertes to duel, in the middle of the duel Laertes and Hamlet drop there swords and accidentally switched them, now Hamlet has the poisoned sword and Laertes has the normal sword

And to make matters worse, the Queen drinks the poisoned wine and dies when the drink was meant for Hamlet

CLAUDIUS

O, yet defend me, friends. I am but hurt.

HAMLET

Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damnèd Dane,
Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
Follow my mother.

HAMLET forces CLAUDIUS to drink CLAUDIUS dies

LAERTES

He is justly served.
It is a poison tempered by himself.
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.
Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,
Nor thine on me. (dies)

( Act 5 Scene 1    319 - 326 )

In the beginning of the play, we know Claudius as a cunning King that makes decisions to help Denmark against countries like Norway

After manipulating Hamlet’s friends into killing him, Hamlet ends up killing them

After manipulating Laertes into killing Hamlet, Laertes dies from his own poisoned sword

After all the scheming and sabotage, nothing went as planned and Claudius got backstabbed when Gertrude died by drinking the poisoned wine, Claudius died by getting stabbed by the poisoned sword and by Hamlet forcing the poisoned wine down his throat and Laertes dies from the poisonous sword