Act 4 Scene 6 of Hamlet is one of the shortest scenes in the play, yet it is important because the contents of Hamlet's letter to Horatio thicken the plot.
The first half of this scene, written in colloquial prose, is the longest comic sequence in Hamlet and serves as a dramatic contrast to what follows.
Act 1, Scene 1 Summary
On a bleak, frigid night, the guards Francisco and Bernardo tell Horatio, a friend of Hamlet, about the ghost they had seen that resembles Hamlet's father. They convince Horatio to join them and attempt to talk with the ghost if it reappears.
Summary: Act I, scene iii
In Polonius's house, Laertes prepares to leave for France. Bidding his sister, Ophelia, farewell, he cautions her against falling in love with Hamlet, who is, according to Laertes, too far above her by birth to be able to love her honorably.
In Act 3, Scene 1 of Hamlet, Claudius and Polonius observe Hamlet interacting with Ophelia to see if his behavior is caused by love for her. When he insults and mocks Ophelia, Claudius concludes that there must be some other cause for Hamlet's behavior and decides to send him to England.
Summary: It's the night of the performance of the play, and Hamlet tasks Horatio with gauging Claudius's reaction to the murder scene. As the courtiers gather to watch, Hamlet acts mad once more, insulting Ophelia with all kinds of indecent taunts. When the play begins, Hamlet carefully observes Claudius.
The Nurse arrives with the news that Romeo has killed Tybalt and has been banished. Juliet at first feels grief for the loss of her cousin Tybalt and verbally attacks Romeo, but then renounces these feelings and devotes herself to grief for Romeo's banishment. The Nurse promises to bring Romeo to Juliet that night.
In Act 1 Scene 4, Horatio, Hamlet, and Marcellus are on the battlement of a castle overlooking the drunken feasting of Hamlet's uncle, King Claudius. The men are waiting to see King Hamlet's ghost again, which could tell the men (and audience) about the past or the present or predict the future.
Act 1 scene 4
Hamlet meets Horatio at night to try and see the ghost for himself. The apparition appears and Hamlet says 'Angels and ministers of grace defend us! / Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned'. The ghost beckons Hamlet to follow him.
Hamlet Act 1, Scene 2 establishes that Old King Hamlet has died recently, and that his brother Claudius ascended to the throne and married his widow Gertrude quickly after his brother's death. Claudius and Gertrude are both concerned (for different reasons) about Hamlet's deep sadness and ennui.
Act 1 Scene 2
Summary: Count Paris, a kinsman of the Prince, tells Capulet that he wants to marry his daughter, Juliet. Capulet's a little reluctant to agree because his daughter is so young, but he tells Paris that if he can woo Juliet successfully, then he'll grant him permission to marry her.
The Opening Scene in Hamlet
Stand and unfold yourself.” The answer to the question of identity is declined. But then it is asked again in a more interesting way, as “unfold yourself”. This almost suggests opening oneself up, taking out one's identity, and showing it to the world.
Hamlet is therefore thirty years old, however out of keeping that might seem with the rest of the play. There are, however, both textual and interpretative grounds to doubt this reading, and to stick with our inference that Hamlet the student is a teenager.
While she lives in the same patriarchal society that demands that she subjugate herself to her father and her brother until she is married, Ophelia has fallen in love with Prince Hamlet. There is strong evidence that she has even had sexual relations with him.
''The rest is silence'' are the last words of Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play by the same name.
The longest play is Hamlet, which is the only Shakespeare play with more than thirty thousand words, and the shortest is The Comedy of Errors, which is the only play with fewer than fifteen thousand words.
Act 1, Scene 5
The ghost tells Hamlet that he is, in fact, the ghost of his dead father. And there's more: the ghost claims that Claudius killed him, taking his throne and his wife in the process. He wants Hamlet to kill Claudius in revenge. Shocked, Hamlet agrees and vows to avenge his father's death.
Summary and Analysis Act I: Scene 4
The dramatic function of this short scene is twofold. First, it gives an opportunity to observe the relationship between Macbeth and Duncan; second, it provides Macbeth with further fuel for his ambitious claim on the kingdom.
Synopsis: Hamlet is brought to Claudius, who tells him that he is to leave immediately for England. Alone, Claudius reveals that he is sending Hamlet to his death. Enter King and two or three.
Gertrude interrupts their plotting to announce that Ophelia has drowned. Enter King and Laertes. 5 Pursued my life.
Act 4, Scene 2
Hamlet has just hidden Polonius's body when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive to handle the situation. When they ask Hamlet where he has stashed the body, Hamlet refuses to reveal the location, telling the pair that all their favors for the king will bring them nothing in the end.
Summary and Analysis Act IV: Scene 4. On his way to England, Hamlet observes Fortinbras leading his troops through Denmark toward Poland. He questions a captain and learns that the Norwegians plan to wage war over a worthless patch of land in Poland.
Lord Capulet argues with Juliet
Juliet refuses to marry and her father threatens to disown her. Juliet begs her mother to help her but she refuses and leaves Juliet with the the Nurse, who also tries to convince her to marry Paris. You can take a look at the whole scene and watch it in performance here.
Mercutio draws first, then Tybalt, and they eventually fall to fighting. Romeo tries to break it up, but Tybalt reaches under Romeo's arm and fatally stabs Mercutio, who curses the Montagues and the Capulets for their continuing feud. A grieving Romeo fights Tybalt and kills him.
Act 3, Scene 2
When Juliet hears of Tybalt's death, she's horrified. But she then realizes that, if faced with the choice between her cousin Tybalt and her husband Romeo, she would choose Romeo. She forgives her husband and grieves over his exile.