1. Plot Development

Hamlet Act V

Julie

Arianna

Elizabeth

Owen

1. Plot development:

Only a month after the death of his father, the king of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother remarries with Old King Hamlet’s brother, Claudius. Hamlet is not happy about this new arrangement and to make things worse Prince Fortinbras of Norway plans to invade Denmark. Hamlet soon encounters the ghost of his recently deceased father and embarks on a quest to avenge his father who was murdered by Claudius. Meanwhile Polonius tells Ophelia, Hamlet’s girlfriend, to end their relationship. Hamlet does not act immediately in seeking revenge but rather assumes a mind-set and the babbling of a crazy man. The king tries to sneak around to find out what is causing Hamlet’s insanity. Ophelia spurns Hamlets affections and Polonius tries to convince the king his madness is caused by her rejection. Hamlet devises a play that alludes to the king’s treacherous deeds to watch the kings reaction in order to confirm his suspicions of murder. The king reacts with an uproar and storms out of the room thus confirming Hamlet’s suspicions; the play within the play is the plots climax. Afterwards Hamlet confronts his mother for her ruthless heart and carelessness in the death of the man she supposedly loved; this is the emotional climax. The emotional boiling point of the play happens in the next scene when Hamlet stabs Polonius and sees the ghost-like apparition again. Suspense builds as the audience wonders if Hamlet will be killed on or after his forced trip to England. We feel even more suspense as Laertes and Claudius conspire to murder Hamlet for the death of Polonius. Soon Ophelia allegedly commits suicide and her family mourns her as much as the church will allow. Hamlet returns and is challenged to a fencing match against Laertes by the King. Hamlet is winning so the king tries to convince him to drink poison but Gertrude unknowingly drinks it instead. Laertes eventually stabs Hamlet with his poisoned sword but Hamlet takes his sword from him and stabs Laertes with the deadly weapon. Just before his death Hamlet kills Claudius and begs Horatio to live to tell the tale of his father’s murder and set his reputation strait.

2. Settings: In the first part of Act 5 the play takes place in the graveyard where Ophelia is to be buried. This gives a somber feeling and mood to the play that will be held more or less throughout the end of the novel. This feeling is also attributed to Ophelia and her depressing madness near the end of the play. The rest of the play is set in private room in Elsinore Castle. This room is set up for fencing since Laertes and Hamlet are about to duel. This room is very grand and magnificent as all of the people inside of it are royalty. All of the deaths inside this room are also very over the top and flouncy which matches the feel of the room.

3. Characters(other than Hamlet):

Gertrude: Hamlet’s mother/aunt. In this act, she ends up drinking the poison that Claudius had intended Hamlet to drink while watching Hamlet and Laertes fight and dies from it.

Claudius: He is behind the entire plot of killing Hamlet. He is the one who makes Laertes and Hamlet fight. In this act at the end of the story, Hamlet forces Claudius to drink the poison that killed his mother, and Claudius soon dies also.

Laertes: Ever since the death of his sister Ophelia and his father Polonius, Laertes has been set on getting revenge on Hamlet by killing him. In this act (with the help of Claudius), Laertes has a fencing match with Hamlet (using the sword he poisoned). Eventually Hamlet stabs Laertes with the poisoned sword, Laertes asks for Hamlet’s forgiveness and he dies.

Horatio: Horatio is the only one that lives during this part of the tragedy. He listens to Hamlet’s wishes about telling every the true story of what happened, and giving the crown of Denmark to Fortinbras.

The Gravedigger: Avery witty and intelligent man who is introduced in this act when he is digging the grave for Ophelia. He is the only character in the play capable of trading barbs with Hamlet. The way he talks back and forth to Hamlet really catches him off guard.

Osric: He is also first introduced in this act. He invites Hamlet to fence with Laertes and eventually ends up as their referee to the battle.

Fortinbras: He comes back in this scene after he wins his battle over territory in Poland and takes the throne of Denmark when Hamlet and Claudius dies.

4.Significant quotes:

Appearance vs. reality: “What is it ye would see?

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.” In this quote Horatio is discussing with Fortinbras what appears to have happened in the castle. What has happened is that Hamlet’s entire “family” has dueled and murdered each other because they all distrust each other. What Fortinbras sees is pretty much that except he respects them more than they respected each other while they were alive. The whole novel is based up the appearance of things and issues and the actual reality of them. This is the final deceiving situation in the play and it is almost ironic that what Fortinbras sees is actually what happened earlier in Elsinore Castle.

Weeds and flowers: “Lay her i’th’earth and from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, a ministering angel my sister be, when thou liest howling.” Laertes insists to the priest that although Ophelia has died and lost some of her previous beauty, God and nature will acknowledge her everlasting goodness by making more beauty from her remains. This parallels but also somewhat contradicts Hamlet’s discussion of the fact that, regardless of a person’s importance in life, everyone becomes an indistinguishable part of the earth in death. Ophelia is considered a flower by many of the characters for her relative innocence, grace, and beauty in an overgrown garden of treachery, deceit, and ugliness.

Disease and poison: “Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine; here’s to thine health.” Claudius attempts to deceive Hamlet with an act of suspicious generosity and good faith. By using a pearl as the delivery method for his poison, Claudius has made an ironic and malicious attempt to kill Hamlet. Often associated with good health, prosperity, and long life, pearls were often used in healing ointments prior to more developed modern medicine. With a toast to Hamlet’s long life, the king further highlights the contrast of his public attempts to ensure Hamlet’s well-being and his inner desire to kill the prince and save himself. In this scene as in many others, poison and disease are intertwined due to the devious nature of the court at Elsinore. Wherever there is sickness, there is always reason to suspect foul play due to the increasingly evident treachery of Claudius and inhabitants of the castle.

Revenge: “Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, drink off this potion: is thy union here? Follow my mother.” Hamlet finally achieves his revenge upon Claudius after a long and painful struggle. After the loss of many lives, the conflict has finally reached its inevitable conclusion: the death of Claudius. The moment when Hamlet stabs the king represents a pivotal event for Hamlet’s character. Not only has he decided to take action to avenge his father, he has also given up on tricks and deception. He handles Claudius as directly as possible by stabbing the king himself. Another noticeable change is Hamlet’s desire to avenge his mother whom he had previously been relatively unsympathetic towards. An event that had to occur for the play to be resolved, the killing of Claudius is the ultimate event in Hamlet’s quest for revenge.

Frailty: “Why, e'en so: and now my Lady Worm's; chapless, and

knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade:

here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to

see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding,

but to play at loggats with 'em? mine ache to think on't” -Hamlet

Here Hamlet is watching the gravediggers as they dig Ophelia’s grave while he contemplates how seemingly insignificant life can be when we all die and are put in the ground to become the food for worms.

Fortune, Fate, and Providence: "The world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange, That even our loves should with our fortunes change" (Act 3, Scene 2, 200-201) The Player King is expressing Hamlet's own concerns, about the speed with which his mother married after his father's death. The character is pointing out that when a man is blessed with fortune and love, he has many friends and loves, but that if he should lose his money (or his life) he will no longer have these friends- and those whom he love will move on. The Player King is not outraged by this realisation, but simply accepts it - encouraging others, especially Hamlet, to accept their fate and not try to change it.

5. Style:

Hyperbole: “I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?” -Hamlet

Simile: “Your skill shall like a star in the darkest night stick fiery off indeed.” - Hamlet

Metaphor: “Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.” -Osric

Apostrophe: “O proud death,what feast is toward in thine eternal cell, that thou so many princes at a shot so bloodily hast struck?”- Fortinbras

Sibilance: “The king shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath, and in the cup an union shall he throw richer than that which four successive kings in Denmark’s crown have worn.”- Claudius

Allusion: “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam—and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel?

Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay,

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.” - Hamlet

Alliteration: I dare not drink yet, madam. By and by. - Hamlet

Couplet: ""I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died." - Hamlet

6. Hamlet’s Development:

By Act V, Hamlet has finally achieved the highest level of decisiveness and boldness that he lamented that he so lacked previously. It is in this act that Hamlet seems to accept his fate and acknowledge that he cannot escape a direct confrontation with his powerful uncle, Claudius. Although Hamlet does not have any soliloquys in Act V, he does share some significant personal thoughts about death, fate, and his place in the world with the audience. Most notably, his conversation with the gravediggers and Horatio indicate his growing understanding that he must come to face his destiny. As he marvels at the skull of Yorick and discusses the irony of great historical figures’ transformation into dust and dirt, Hamlet clearly indicates that he has a new understanding of death. This shift informs his later decisions and dictates his future actions during the dramatic duel scene. Later when he informs Horatio that it is unwise to shy away from death or attempt to pick its time of arrival, he shows a massive transformation from his former “To be or not to be” self. He now understands that it will serve him best to take action for his honor and his father’s name, no matter the consequences. No longer indecisive and wavering, the prince refers to himself as “the Dane,” a brave proclamation of his intent to take the throne back from Claudius.