Guards Bernardo, Horatio, and Marcellus encounter the ghost of the dead King Hamlet on the battlements, learn of looming conflict with Norway and decide to inform Prince Hamlet.
Claudius consolidates power by marrying Gertrude, sending envoys to Norway about Fortinbras, and granting Laertes permission to return to France; Polonius supports this. Hamlet expresses deep grief and disgust over his mother’s swift remarriage, delivers his “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt” soliloquy, and, after hearing the guards’ report of the ghost, vows to join them on watch and confront the apparition.
Laertes cautions Ophelia against Hamlet’s fleeting affection and urges her to preserve her virtue; Polonius delivers a lengthy set of paternal maxims to Laertes, including “to thine own self be true,” and then confronts Ophelia about Hamlet’s advances, warning her that his vows are unreliable and commanding her to cease all contact with him.
The ghost of the dead King appears to Prince Hamlet on the platform; Hamlet confronts and vows to follow it despite Horatio and Marcellus' warnings; Marcellus declares that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
Polonius sends Reynaldo to Paris to discreetly probe Laertes' conduct, and later, after Ophelia reports Hamlet's bizarre and frantic behavior, Polonius decides to inform the king about Hamlet's apparent madness caused by love.
Claudius commissions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet; Polonius attributes Hamlet’s madness to Ophelia’s love and plots to trap him by arranging a meeting behind an arras; ambassadors Voltimand and Cornelius report that Norway’s threat has been pacified and a payment secured; Hamlet exchanges sharp wit with Polonius, delivers the “What a piece of work is a man” soliloquy, confronts Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about their motives, and decides to have a troupe perform a play that will reveal Claudius’s guilt; the Players arrive in Elsinore.
Hamlet delivers the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy, confronts Ophelia and urges her to a nunnery, while Claudius arranges a covert observation of Hamlet’s encounter with Ophelia and resolves to exile Hamlet to England; Polonius and Claudius continue plotting to discover the cause of Hamlet’s apparent madness.
Hamlet gives the Players a detailed instruction on naturalistic acting, denounces over‑acting, and designates the upcoming performance as the “Mousetrap” to trap King Claudius’s conscience.
Claudius orders Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to escort Hamlet to England and Polonius prepares to eavesdrop behind the arras; Claudius delivers a guilt‑filled soliloquy; Hamlet decides not to kill a praying Claudius, postponing his revenge; Claudius muses on the inadequacy of his prayers before exiting.
Hamlet encounters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in a castle chamber; they demand the location of a dead body, but Hamlet cryptically refuses, launching a metaphor‑laden tirade about being a sponge that soaks up the king’s favor and will later be left dry, before ordering them to “Hide fox, and all after” and exiting.
Claudius orders Hamlet’s immediate exile to England with the intention that he be killed; Rosencrantz pledges to see the king’s lethal instructions carried out in England.
Hamlet observes a Norwegian army under Prince Fortinbras marching through Denmark to claim a worthless parcel of land, prompting a self‑critical soliloquy in which he condemns his own procrastination, resolves to pursue decisive, violent action, and vows that his thoughts must be “bloody” or meaningless.
Ophelia’s madness erupts in a series of disjointed songs about death, love, and remembrance; Laertes returns to Elsinore demanding vengeance for his father’s death, confronts King Claudius, and a volatile exchange forces Claudius to promise a hearing and a possible reward for Laertes’s proof of guilt.
Horatio receives sailors who bring a letter from an ambassador captured by pirates, containing correspondence for the king; the sailors also report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are on their way to England.