In other productions, she seems unaware, so it would be homicide. In some productions, as in the Tennant/Stewart version, it's clear that Gertrude knows the cup is poisoned and drinks it anyhow – so it's a knowing death, and therefore suicide. Was it murder or suicide, though? Well – it depends. Who intended to poison Hamlet, but Gertrude drank from the chalice from the palace – or was it the vessel with the pestle? In any event, poisoned.
Hamlet doesn't feel any remorse for these deaths, since he's all Hammurabi about it (kind of "an eye for an eye", even though it's a two for one exchange).ĥ.
The English court thinks they're responding to a request from Claudius, but it's Hamlet who signed their death warrant, assisted by his father's ring (which bore the requisite seal). Rosencrantz & Guildstern: executed in England as a favor to Denmark. Or the fact that noblewomen in Denmark might not have been taught to swim back then. To say nothing of the weight of her robes/gown/whatever. Poor Ophelia was so terribly depressed, what with Hamlet forsaking her and her father dying and Laertes skipping about Paris and all, that she probably didn't have the energy to fight the current. If she truly wanted to die and ended up dead, then she would never, ever get to heaven (under the Elizabethan understanding of things). Not of her own volition, really, so it's not technically a suicide, but when she fell in the water, she didn't try to save herself, either hence, the church's quarrel with burying her in sacred ground, and the conversation between the gravediggers about what does and does not constitute a drowning by suicide. We must assume that Polonius can't go straight to heaven, either.ģ. Polonius is buried in "hugger-mugger", a term encompassing both notions of secrecy and of confusion or muddle. Hamlet "lugs the guts" from the chamber and stashes it in a stairwell. Not that Hamlet had any love for Polonius, but neither did he have it in for him. Polonius: stabbed by Hamlet because he thought it was Claudius. Since King Hamlet had not made his final confession before his untimely death, his soul is doomed to purgatory, or so his spirit intimates in Act I.Ģ. Ghost is truthful or a liar, and as to whether Claudius could have commited "murther most foul". (Check out this New York Times article from 1982 for further details.) andī) It makes the means of death less obvious, thereby creating some doubt in Hamlet's mind as to whether the Shakespeare's decision to switch up the mode of death accomplishes two things:Ī) It shows that Shakespeare was familiar with the latest scientific discoveries of his time. In real life (to the extent that the play is based in fact, after all), the brother stabbed King Hamlet and there were witnesses. King Hamlet: murdered prior to the start of the play by Claudius through the cunning use of poison in the ear. How do they all die? Let me count the ways:ġ. I figured I'd tackle them in order of death. Meanwhile, nearly all the main players die except Horatio. Want to test your knowledge of who dies and how? You can always take this quiz. And given that Hamlet spends most of the play deciding to kill Claudius and Claudius spends it thinking Hamlet might be out to get him, it's kind of funny that Claudius doesn't truly see it coming until it's there (since he's so smug that he thinks Laertes has it all under control and that will be that).
I find it interesting that most of the deaths were not anticipated by the characters – kinda notable in an age when warfare was common. Kellyrfineman Death is one of the major themes in Hamlet.