When we last left the Hamlet plot summary, we were at the end of Act Four, Scene Four, with our melancholy Dane watching the approach of the Norwegian army under Fortinbras, waiting to be taken to his death in England by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and deciding to make his own thoughts “bloody” (IV.iv.66). As we enter Act Four, Scene Five, we’re back into the palace at Elsinore, with Queen Gertrude refusing to see someone.
If it was only so easy as to be Claudius… but it isn’t.
It’s the now “indeed distract” (IV.v.2) Ophelia, despondent over the death of her father.
Continue reading “Hamlet: Act Four, Scenes Five through Seven”