young Prince of Denmark

He told his plan to Horatio, his best friend in the castle, and also asked him to watch the king' s face with the GREatest care.Hamlet went to the king and queen to tell them that he would like to invite them to a play the next evening. They aGREed to see the play. They hoped that Hamlet was at last getting better and would come to accept them as his father and mother. He said good night to Claudius and Gertrude, pretending that he was happy that night.On his way back to his own room, he met Ophelia, who looked so sad and unhappy in the hall. The king and Polonius were hiding behind the curtains of the hall, trying to listen to their conversation.Hamlet said to Ophelia, "I don' t love you anymore. We are all dirty animals on this earth. Ophelia, you are one of these dirty ones, too. Go to a nunnery. Go away right now, you dirty woman!"Ophelia was too surprised at his words to say anything to him. It was such a strange and mad thing to say. Polonius thought his guess was right. But the king still doubted Hamlet' s madness.The king, the queen and Polonius entered a large room where the play was to be shown to the whole court. The king sat with the queen. Hamlet sat by the side of Ophelia. Horatio sat facing the king in order to watch him carefully.


The play began. In the play the king and queen were talking on the bench in the beautiful garden. The queen said to the king, "I will love you forever. I will never marry another man if you should die before me. Only women that kill their husbands marry again. " The king in the play was very glad to hear this. As the king fell asleep, the queen left him alone. Just after she left, the king's brother came near the sleeping king and poured a deadly poison into his ear. He was soon killed by this cunning brother who had long wanted to become king and marry the queen.Seeing this scene, Claudius turned pale and became very angry. He shouted, "Stop the play at once. " He stood up and went out of the room with the queen.Horatio and Hamlet saw the king show every sign of fear and anger. Hamlet was now quite sure that the ghost had told him the truth. He himself became excited and firmly decided to revenge his father as soon as he could. When the queen came back into her room, she was very worried about her son, who had made the king furious. She wanted to know why Hamlet asked the group of players to show such a disgraceful play before the king. She sent for Hamlet.


Hamlet hurriedly walked to her room where she was uneasily waiting for him. On the way to his mother' s room, Hamlet saw Claudius kneeling down to pray in his room. He thought he could kill him right then. But he did not do it. He said to himself, "If I kill him when he is praying to God, he will not go to hell. I had better kill him when he is angry or doing something bad. Then he is sure to go to hell. " So he stopped thinking of killing Claudius for the moment.Hamlet did not know that the doubting king had commanded Polonius to hide behind the curtains in the queen' s room so that he could see what might happen there. As soon as Hamlet came into her room, his mother began to scold him for what he had done to the king. She said angrily, "You have made your father very angry. You must beg his pardon."Hamlet would not listen to her, but answered back. He said, "It is you who are to blame. You married that unkind and unkingly uncle of mine so soon after my father' s death.You should be ashamed of your deed. I will never accept him as my father. He does not deserve to be King of Denmark. I will tell you again. It is not I but you and that dirty Claudius that should repent."