King Hamlet is dead and his brother Claudius marries Queen Gertrude. Prince Hamlet is angry about this. The ghost of King Hamlet appears and tells Hamlet that Claudius murdered him. Hamlet devises a plan to prove Claudius's guilt by performing a play mirroring King Hamlet's death. This confirms Claudius is the killer. Claudius tries to send Hamlet away, but Hamlet returns and confronts his mother. A fight breaks out where Hamlet kills Polonius by accident. Claudius plots to kill Hamlet, but Hamlet discovers this and kills Claudius instead. Before dying, Hamlet names Fortinbras as the new King of Denmark.

1. William
Shakespeare
Brief Summary
Dr. Mohammed Fahmy Raiyah

2. • king Hamlet is dead.
• Claudius, king Hamlet’s brother, marries Queen
Gertrude.
• The ghost of the dead king appears.
• In a soliloquy, Prince Hamlet, the son of King Hamlet
and Queen Gertrude, expresses his anger against his
mother for her hasty remarriage.
• The king asks Hamlet to stay in Denmark.
• Polonius, the king’s counselor, and Laertes, his son,
warn Ophelia, Polonius’ daughter, against Hamlet.
• The ghost tells Hamlet that he must avenge his
father’s murder.

3. • Hamlet asks a group of actors to act a play that
shows events similar to the killing of King Hamlet
in front of Claudius and Gertrude.
• Hamlet becomes sure of what the ghost told him.
• Hamlet wants to kill the king, but finds him
praying.
• He confronts his mother and kills Polonius who
was hiding behind the curtain.

4. • The king sends Hamlet to England and sends
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with him, giving
them orders to kill the prince.
• Ophelia becomes mad.
• Hamlet returns to Denmark.
• Claudius puts a plan to kill Hamlet by the
poisoned sword in a duel with Laertes.
• Ophelia drowns in a pond.

5. • Hamlet and Horatio are at the graveyard.
• A funeral comes and Hamlet discovers that it is
Ophelia’s coffin.
• Hamlet and Laertes fight.
• Hamlet accepts the fencing contest with Laertes.
• The king offers Hamlet the poisoned drink, but he
does not take it. The Queen drinks it.
• Hamlet is wounded with the poisoned sword, and
Hamlet wounds Laertes with the same sword.
• As Laertes is dying, he tells Hamlet that the king
is to blame for the poisoned sword and the
poison in the cup. Hamlet stabs the king and
forces him to drink from the cup.

6. • Fortinbras, the king of Norway, arrives with his
army to conquer Denmark.
• Hamlet urges Horatio to tell his story. He says
that he wishes Fortinbras to be made King of
Denmark; then he dies.
• Fortinbras orders for Hamlet to be carried
away like a brave soldier.