Hamlet, A Detaled Summary

11 Pages 2827 Words

former wife. Claudius next allows a young nobleman named Laertes to return to France to continue schooling. Turning to Hamlet, both Claudius and Gertrude beg him to remain in Denmark instead of returning to Wittenberg for school. Hamlet agrees to stay, and watches as everyone leaves the hall to celebrate his uncle’s and his mother’s marriage. He is upset about the fact that his mother married Claudius within less than two months after the death of King Hamlet. The arrival of Horatio, Barnardo, and Marcellus, who have come to tell him about the ghost they have seen, interrupts Hamlet. Hamlet asks them if they have the watch again that night, and Barnardo says they do. At this information, Hamlet agrees to join them that night in order to see the ghost.
That night, Hamlet and Horatio are outside waiting for the ghost to arrive. When the ghost finally arrives, Hamlet tries to speak to it, but it only beckons him to follow. Horatio and Marcellus try to make him stay, but Hamlet tells them to let go of him. Marcellus and Horatio watch him leave and decide to follow him. Hamlet follows the ghost, who finally speaks and notifies Hamlet that he is the spirit of Old Hamlet, Hamlet’s father. The ghost indicates that he is in purgatory, “I am thy father’s spirit, /Doomed for a certain term to walk the night /And for the day confined to fast in fires /Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature /Are burned and purged away”. Old Hamlet commands his son to revenge his murder. Hamlet is confused, and does not understanding what the ghost is talking about. The ghost tells him that “sleeping in mine orchard, /A serpent stung me”, alluding to the fact that he was murdered. He goes on to say that the serpent is his brother, Claudius, who entered the garden where he was sleeping and poured poison into his ear. He died without having a chance to confess his sins, and must therefore endure Purgatory until he can burn away all of his sin...