Hamlet Opening Scene Essay

385 Words2 Pages
This scene takes place in the fifth and final act of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this crucial event, Queen Gertrude is reacting to the poison that she has ingested through a deadly drink. Planted by King Claudius, this murderous drink was meant to be drunken by Hamlet during the sword fight. Now, there had already been measures taken to attempt to kill Hamlet beforehand; Laertes (Hamlet’s opponent), scheming along with King Claudius, had dipped his sword into some deadly poison. This poison was so toxic, that if Hamlet were to even be scratched, he would die within the hour. However, as a backup plan, King Claudius decided to drop a poisonous pearl into a chalice to be used by Hamlet. Despite this, Hamlet refused to drink from the cup, claiming