# Hamlet — Chapters explained

> Chapter companions for Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

- [Act I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-i.md): Hamlet — Stage Lens: dramatic beats, line helps that follow your scroll, and stage picture. Read to understand, not to collect a closed thesis.
- [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-i-scene-i.md): On the battlements of Elsinore, the guards Bernardo, Marcellus, and Horatio witness the ghost of the late King Hamlet. Horatio explains the political context: the late king defeated Fortinbras of Norway in combat, and no
- [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-i-scene-ii.md): In a state room, King Claudius addresses the court about his recent marriage to Gertrude and dispatches ambassadors to Norway to curb Fortinbras's aggression. He grants Laertes permission to return to France. Hamlet, sti
- [Scene III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-i-scene-iii.md): Laertes bids farewell to Ophelia, warning her to be cautious of Hamlet's affections, which he considers fleeting and constrained by his royal position. Polonius then enters, echoes Laertes' warnings, and forbids Ophelia 
- [Scene IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-i-scene-iv.md): On the cold platform of Elsinore, Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus await the ghost. Hamlet reflects on the king's heavy drinking and its effect on Denmark's reputation. The Ghost appears and beckons Hamlet to follow. Despi
- [Scene V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-i-scene-v.md): The Ghost reveals to Hamlet that he is the spirit of his father, murdered by Claudius, and commands Hamlet to seek revenge. Hamlet swears to remember and avenge the murder, and makes Horatio and Marcellus swear secrecy a
- [Act II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-ii.md): Hamlet — Stage Lens: dramatic beats, line helps that follow your scroll, and stage picture. Read to understand, not to collect a closed thesis.
- [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-ii-scene-i.md): Polonius sends Reynaldo to spy on Laertes in Paris, instructing him to use indirect methods to gather information. Ophelia then reports Hamlet's strange and distressed behavior, which Polonius interprets as madness cause
- [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-ii-scene-ii.md): King Claudius and Queen Gertrude welcome Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to Elsinore, enlisting them to spy on Hamlet and discover the cause of his apparent madness. Polonius announces the return of the ambassadors from Nor
- [Act III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iii.md): Hamlet — Stage Lens: dramatic beats, line helps that follow your scroll, and stage picture. Read to understand, not to collect a closed thesis.
- [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-i.md): Hamlet delivers his 'To be or not to be' soliloquy, then confronts Ophelia, cruelly rejecting her and advising her to go to a nunnery. After he leaves, Ophelia laments his decline. King Claudius and Polonius, who have be
- [Scene II: The Mousetrap](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-ii.md): Hamlet stages a play to confirm Claudius's guilt. The king's reaction to the poisoning scene reveals his guilt, and Hamlet is now certain of the ghost's truth. After the play, Hamlet confronts Rosencrantz and Guildenster
- [Scene III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-iii.md): Claudius, alarmed by Hamlet's madness, arranges for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to escort him to England. Polonius plans to spy on Hamlet's conversation with Gertrude. Claudius attempts to pray for forgiveness but finds
- [Scene IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-iv.md): In the Queen's closet, Hamlet confronts his mother Gertrude about her marriage to Claudius. Polonius, hiding behind an arras, cries out and is killed by Hamlet, who mistakes him for the king. The Ghost appears to remind 
- [Act IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iv.md): Hamlet — Stage Lens: dramatic beats, line helps that follow your scroll, and stage picture. Read to understand, not to collect a closed thesis.
- [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-i.md): King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss Hamlet's madness after he kills Polonius. Claudius decides to send Hamlet to England and seeks to manage the political fallout.
- [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-ii.md): Hamlet is confronted by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about the whereabouts of Polonius's body. He speaks in riddles and insults them, calling them sponges for the king, and refuses to give a straight answer before agreei
- [Scene III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-iii.md): King Claudius, concerned about Hamlet's dangerous freedom after killing Polonius, decides to send him to England. Hamlet mocks the King with riddles about Polonius's body and death. Claudius secretly arranges for Hamlet 
- [Scene IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-iv.md): Fortinbras sends a captain to greet the Danish king and request passage through Denmark for his army. Hamlet, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, encounters the captain and learns that Fortinbras is leading a ca
- [Scene V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-v.md): Ophelia, driven mad by grief over her father's death, sings disjointed songs and distributes symbolic flowers. Laertes returns from France, storms the castle seeking revenge for Polonius's murder, and confronts Claudius.
- [Scene VI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-vi.md): Horatio receives sailors bearing a letter from Hamlet, who recounts his encounter with pirates, his capture, and his escape, and asks Horatio to deliver letters to the king and meet him urgently.
- [Scene VII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-vii.md): Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet killed Polonius and conspires with him to murder Hamlet in a rigged fencing match. Gertrude enters and announces Ophelia's drowning, sending Laertes into a grief-stricken rage.
- [Act V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-v.md): Hamlet — Stage Lens: dramatic beats, line helps that follow your scroll, and stage picture. Read to understand, not to collect a closed thesis.
- [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-v-scene-i.md): In a graveyard, Hamlet encounters a gravedigger who unearths the skull of Yorick, the former court jester. Hamlet reflects on mortality and the inevitability of death. The funeral procession of Ophelia arrives, and Hamle
- [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-v-scene-ii.md): Hamlet recounts to Horatio how he discovered and altered the king's commission ordering his execution, leading to the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He then receives a challenge from Laertes, arranged by Claudiu
- [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters/act-v-scene-ii.md): This chapter discusses textual complications in Hamlet arising from the combination of the Second Quarto and First Folio, including missing words and incomplete verse lines, with scholarly emendations proposed.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/hamlet_se/chapters