Hamlet Acts 2-5

Polonius sends Reynaldo to Paris to spy on Laertes and to take him money and messages.

He thinks Ophelia's rejections have been too much for Hamlet, that Hamlet is love-sick.

They have come to find out why Hamlet is acting so strangely and to report their findings to the King.

He wants to have Hamlet meet Ophelia. He (Polonius) will hide and eavesdrop on the conversation to determine whether or not Hamlet is love-sick.

Hamlet basically says that he thought the world was wonderful and man was the most wonderful part of the world, but now he finds that things are not wonderful. He finds no delight in man or woman.

He arranges to have several of his own lines put into the play (to make the action of the play as closely related to the actual events of his father's murder as possible).

He thinks himself a coward for not getting right to the revenge.

They tell him Hamlet wishes the King and Queen to see the play. The King gladly accepts.

He is pondering whether a miserable life is better than the unknown of death.

He is really quite rude and aggressive.

They decide he is not love-sick; rather, he has some other trouble deep in his soul.

Hamlet does not want the parts to be over-acted. He wants it to appear as natural and as real as possible so it will hit home to the King.

The King got up and called for the lights. Hamlet and Horatio were convinced that the ghost was right, that Claudius had murdered King Hamlet.

He told Hamlet that the Queen wanted to see him.

He has them prepare to take Hamlet to England. Claudius is beginning to feel threatened by Hamlet, and he wants him away from Elsinore. In fact, he wants Hamlet dead.

Hamlet wants the King to die without a chance for a last confession, as his father died. He thinks if the King is praying, he may not be in sin enough to get eternal punishment.

Polonius is in the Queen's room while she and Hamlet are talking. He hides behind the tapestry but makes some noise. Hamlet runs through the tapestry with his sword (actually thinking Claudius might be there), killing Polonius.

He wants her to at least not sleep with the King.

He uses the word "sponge" to describe them, saying they soak up the King's words, commands and gifts. He thinks they are weak and not smart enough to see that they are being used by the King.

Hamlet's mother truly loves him and would want no harm to come to him, and the people of Denmark love him and would be uneasy if something would happen to him.

First he says Polonius is "not where he eats, but where he is eaten." Then he later tells the King to look for him in Heaven, and if he can't find Polonius there, to go to "the other place" (hell) himself.

The King wants Hamlet to be killed as soon as he reaches England.

He realizes his father has been murdered, his uncle is a murderer, his mother is living in an incestuous marriage, and the soldiers he has just seen are going to kill each other over a little piece of land which is not worth anything.

Ophelia has gone crazy.

Laertes wants revenge for his father's death.

He explains that he escaped from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern onto a pirate ship. He is a prisoner, but is being treated well because the pirates want favors from him. He wants Horatio to give letters he has written to the King and Queen and then to come to see him as quickly as possible.

They plan to set up a duel between Laertes and Hamlet in which Laertes will honorably kill Hamlet, or if Hamlet lives, the King will poison him.

She tells him that Ophelia is dead; she has drowned.

The priest more or less says that Ophelia is lucky to be getting as nice of a funeral as she is, considering the nature of her death.

He shows that his sorrow is as great as Laertes'.

He tells Laertes not to worry, that he (Laertes) will soon have the appropriate time and place to kill Hamlet, and that one way or another, Hamlet will die.

Hamlet replaced their letters (which called for Hamlet's execution) with letters which called for the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

He tells Hamlet of the wager the King has made on Hamlet's behalf in a contest between Laertes and Hamlet.

The King is run through and killed by Hamlet. Hamlet is killed by the poison on Laertes' sword. Laertes is killed by the poison on his own sword. The Queen is poisoned and killed by the drink the King had prepared for Hamlet.

Fortinbras