In the bedchamber, a furious row erupts between Hamlet and Gertrude. Polonius, spying on the conversation and hidden behind a tapestry, makes a noise; Hamlet, believing it is Claudius, cries "Dead, for a ducat, dead!" and stabs wildly, killing Polonius. Hamlet then pulls aside the curtain and sees his mistake. He does not feel too sorry about this, saying only "Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!" He then berates his mother for marrying Claudius for the sex. He claims her "sense" was "thrall'd" to her "ecstasy," and observes that "rebellious hell... can mutine in a matron's bones." The castle ghost suddenly pops his head in and gripes that Hamlet still hasn't killed Claudius yet and that he is annoying his mother even though he was instructed not to. Unable to see or hear the Ghost herself, Gertrude takes Hamlet's conversation with it as further evidence of madness. Hamlet leaves, begging the queen to stop having sex with Claudius, and suggesting that she can get used to this if she makes it a habit to abstain. Hamlet hides Polonius's corpse in "the lobby," and Claudius, fearing for his life, sends Hamlet along with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to England with a note to the King ordering Hamlet to be executed immediately.
Demented by grief at Polonius's death, Ophelia wanders Elsinore singing bawdysongs. Her brother, Laertes, arrives back from France, enraged by his father's death and his sister's madness. Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet is solely responsible; then news arrives that Hamlet is still at large. Claudius swiftly concocts a plot. He proposes a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet with a poison-tipped foil, but tacitly plans to offer Hamlet poisoned wine if that fails. Laertes will be given a handicap, and Claudius intends to bet on Hamlet so that if Hamlet dies the murder will not appear staged. Gertrude interrupts to report that Ophelia has drowned.
Two gravediggers discuss Ophelia's apparent suicide, while digging her grave. Hamlet arrives with Horatio and banters with a gravedigger, who unearths the skull of a jesterfrom Hamlet's childhood, Yorick, causing Hamlet to contemplate the universal nature of mortality. Ophelia's funeral procession approaches, led by Laertes. He and Hamlet grapple by Ophelia's graveside, but the brawl is broken up.
Back at Elsinore, Hamlet tells Horatio that he had written fake letters addressed from Claudius to the King of England ordering Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be put to death instead. A courtier, Osric, interrupts to invite Hamlet to fence with Laertes. With Fortinbras' army closing on Elsinore, the match begins. Laertes pierces Hamlet with a poisoned blade but in the scuffle they switch swords and Hamlet wounds Laertes with his own poisoned sword. Despite a warning from Claudius, Gertrude drinks poisoned wine intended for Hamlet and dies. In his dying moments, Laertes is reconciled with Hamlet and reveals Claudius's murderous plot. In his own last moments, an enraged Hamlet blames Claudius for his mother's death and manages to stab and wound Claudius with the poisoned blade, and finishes him off by forcing him to drink his own poisoned wine. Horatio attempts to commit suicide by drinking the poison but Hamlet swipes the cup from his hands and orders him to live to tell the tale. When Fortinbras arrives, Horatio recounts the story and Fortinbras, seeing the entire royal family dead on the floor, takes the crown for himself.
