Hamlet: ThemeTracker

The LitCharts ThemeTracker is a mini-version of the entire LitChart. The ThemeTracker provides a quick timeline-style rundown of all the important plot points and allows you to track the themes throughout the work at a glance.

	1.1	The Ghost of Old Hamlet, appears on the ramparts of Elsinore. Horatio and the watchmen decide that they should tell Hamlet.
	1.2	Claudius explains away his recent marriage to Gertrude, then sends messengers to Old Fortinbras to stop Fortinbras from invading Denmark. Claudius gives Laertes leave to return to university, but chides Hamlet for still wearing mourning clothes over the death of his father. In a soliloquy, Hamlet wishes that suicide weren’t a sin. He then rants about Claudius and Gertrude’s’ marriage, and calls women in general weak and lustful. Horatio and the watchmen enter and tell him about the Ghost.
	1.3	Laertes warns Ophelia not to trust Hamlet’s declarations of love. Polonius gives Laertes some long-winded advice about how to behave at university before sending him off. Polonius, suspecting that Hamlet just wants sex from Ophelia, forbids Ophelia to talk to Hamlet.
	1.4	Hamlet joins the watchmen on the ramparts. The Ghost appears and beckons Hamlet to follow it. Hamlet does. Marcellus says “something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
	1.5	The Ghost tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Claudius. He makes Hamlet promise to seek revenge, but not to harm Gertrude. When Horatio and Marcellus find Hamlet, he refuses to tell them what he learned, but does say that he may pretend to act insane and swears them to silence. When they leave, Hamlet despairs at the task that has been given to him.
	2.1	An upset Ophelia tells Polonius that Hamlet burst into her room and acted strangely, staring at her and sighing. Polonius decides that Hamlet must be lovesick.
	2.2	Claudius and Gertrude ask Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out why Hamlet has been so melancholy. Polonius enters with news that Old Fortinbras has rebuked Fortinbras for threatening to invade Denmark. He also states his suspicions that Hamlet is lovesick over Ophelia. Hamlet quickly figures out that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are spies for Claudius and Gertrude. The players arrive. Hamlet privately asks the lead player to have his troupe perform The Murder of Gonzago, and says he will add a few lines to the play himself.
	3.1	Hamlet muses on death and suicide in the “To be or not to be speech.” Claudius and Polonius engineer a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia to determine if Hamlet is lovesick over her. During the meeting, Hamlet denies ever loving Ophelia and condemns women and marriage. He also says that one person who is already married will die. Ophelia is distraught. Claudius decides Hamlet isn’t in love or insane, and is a danger. Polonius still thinks Hamlet is in love with Ophelia, and wants to spy on him some more.
	3.2	The players perform the Murder of Gonzago for the entire royal court. In the play, the players enact a scene identical to the Ghost’s description of how he was murdered by Claudius. During this scene, Claudius calls for light and runs from the room. Hamlet is overjoyed because now he knows the Ghost was telling the truth. Polonius tells Hamlet that his behavior has upset Gertrude, who wants to see him in her chamber. Hamlet agrees to go see her.
	3.3	On the way to his mother’s chamber, Hamlet sees Claudius praying alone in a little chapel. He draws his sword to kill Claudius and get revenge... but realizes that because Claudius is praying, he’ll only end up sending Claudius to heaven. Hamlet decides to wait in order to kill Claudius when he can send him to hell.
	3.4	Polonius hides behind a tapestry in Gertrude’s chamber to spy on the meeting. Hamlet enters, and he and Gertrude argue. Gertrude thinks Hamlet means to kill her. From behind the tapestry, Polonius calls for help. Hamlet, thinking that it’s Claudius behind the tapestry, stabs Polonius through the fabric. Hamlet continues to berate his mother for marrying Claudius, until the Ghost appears and tells him to stop.
	4.1	Gertrude tells Claudius that Hamlet is mad and killed Polonius. Claudius muses about how to explain the murder of Polonius’ to the public.
	4.2	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Hamlet that Claudius wants to see him. Hamlet mocks them, but agrees to see Claudius.
	4.3	Claudius says that to protect Hamlet he’s going to send Hamlet to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Secretly, Claudius writes to the English king asking him to execute Hamlet.
	4.4	On the way to the Danish coast, Hamlet sees Fortinbras’ army on its way to fight in Poland. He bitterly compares his own inaction to their action, and vows to focus on revenge
	4.5	In Elsinore, Ophelia has gone mad, and Claudius is worried about the commoners, who are angry about Polonius’ death. Laertes has also returned to Denmark to seek revenge for his father’s death. Laertes bursts into Elsinore, bent on killing Claudius. But before he can act, the insane Ophelia wanders into the room and Laertes is stopped in his tracks by her madness. Claudius convinces Laertes to let him explain what happened.
	4.6	Horatio learns that Hamlet was captured by pirates and returned for a ransom to Denmark. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern continue to England without him.
	4.7	Claudius receives word that Hamlet has returned to Denmark. Laertes and Claudius come up with a scheme to challenge Hamlet to a duel and to kill him with either a poisoned sword or a poisoned goblet of wine. Ophelia drowns.
	5.1	In a graveyard near Elsinore, Hamlet banters with a gravedigger, then muses about death when he discovers Yorick’s skull. Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes and others enter the graveyard in a funeral procession for Ophelia. Hamlet announces that he loved Ophelia, and Hamlet and Laertes grapple in Ophelia’s grave.
	5.2	Hamlet tells Horatio that he switched the letter that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were carrying. The new letter asks the King of England to kill them. Osric enters, and says that Claudius has wagered that Hamlet can beat Laertes in a duel. Hamlet agrees to fight, though he tells Horatio that he doesn’t think it will be a fair fight. When Horatio asks him not to fight, but Hamlet says that there’s no use trying to escape death. At the duel, Hamlet apologizes to Laertes, who does not accept. They fight. Claudius offers Hamlet the poisoned wine to drink, but he refuses. Gertrude, however, drinks the poisoned wine to Hamlet’s health, and Claudius can’t stop her. Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword, but in the scuffle Hamlet winds up with the poisoned sword and wounds Laertes. Gertrude dies from the poisoned wine. Laertes, also dying, reveals Claudius’ treachery. Hamlet kills Claudius, then forgives Laertes. Laertes dies. Hamlet tells Horatio to tell his story and says the throne should be given to Fortinbras, then dies. Fortinbras and ambassadors from England arrive. The ambassadors announce that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Horatio begins to tell Hamlet’s story. Fortinbras says that Hamlet deserves a soldier’s honors since he would have made a great king.