Act 4 of Hamlet follows the fallout from Polonius’s death: Claudius sends Hamlet to England to be executed, Ophelia goes mad with grief, her brother Laertes storms home for revenge, and the king turns Laertes into a weapon against Hamlet.
This summary takes Act 4 scene by scene, from the hunt for Polonius’s body to the news of Ophelia’s drowning. Each scene covers what happens, the key lines, and why it matters for the rest of the play. For the whole story, see our full guide to Hamlet. For what came before, see our Act 3 summary, and for everyone who appears here, see our guide to the Hamlet characters.
At a Glance
Here is Act 4 of Hamlet in brief.
Act 4, Scene 1: The Queen’s Report
Moments after the closet scene, Gertrude tells Claudius what has happened.
Hamlet, she says, is “Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend / Which is the mightier.” Hearing something stir behind the arras, he cried “A rat, a rat!” and killed “The unseen good old man.” She is keeping her promise to her son: she tells Claudius he is mad, and says nothing of what Hamlet told her about his madness being an act. Claudius sees his own danger at once: “It had been so with us, had we been there.” Hamlet must be shipped off quickly, and the killing explained away. He sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find Hamlet and the body.
Act 4, Scene 2: Where Is the Body?
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find Hamlet, who has hidden the body and will not tell them where.
He has mixed it with the dust it came from, he tells them. He mocks Rosencrantz as a sponge that soaks up the king’s favors, only to be squeezed dry when the king needs what it has gathered. When they insist he come to the king, he answers with a riddle: “The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body.”
Act 4, Scene 3: Sent to England
Claudius explains why he cannot simply punish Hamlet: the prince is “loved of the distracted multitude,” and the people would judge the punishment, not the crime.
Hamlet is brought in under guard. Asked where Polonius is, he says “At supper,” and explains: “Not where he eats, but where he is eaten.” The worms are at him. A king, he adds, may “go a progress through the guts of a beggar,” since a man may fish with a worm that ate a king and then eat the fish. If the king’s messengers cannot find Polonius in heaven, Hamlet suggests, Claudius should look in the other place himself, or they will smell him soon enough on the stairs to the lobby.
Claudius tells Hamlet that he must leave for England at once, for his own safety. “Farewell, dear mother,” Hamlet says to the king. “Thy loving father, Hamlet,” Claudius corrects him. Hamlet explains: father and mother are man and wife, man and wife are one flesh, so, “my mother.” Once he is gone, Claudius reveals his plan. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern carry sealed letters to the king of England, which is in Denmark’s debt, ordering “The present death of Hamlet.” “Do it, England,” Claudius says.
Act 4, Scene 4: Fortinbras’s Army
On the way to the ship, Hamlet meets a captain from the army of Fortinbras, marching across Denmark to fight in Poland.
The captain admits they are going to fight for “a little patch of ground / That hath in it no profit but the name.” He would not pay five ducats to farm it. Yet thousands of men will die for it. Left alone, Hamlet turns the sight against himself: “How all occasions do inform against me, / And spur my dull revenge!” He has “cause, and will, and strength, and means” to act, and a father killed and a mother stained, while these soldiers die for “a fantasy and trick of fame.” He ends with a vow: “O, from this time forth, / My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!” He makes it, however, while being taken out of the country, and he vows bloody thoughts, not bloody deeds.
Act 4, Scene 5: Ophelia’s Madness and Laertes’s Return
The queen is told that Ophelia is behaving strangely and wants to see her.
Ophelia enters and sings fragments of songs: about a dead man in his grave, and about a young woman seduced and abandoned by a lover who promised to marry her. Her speech wanders: “Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.” She says her brother shall know of it, and leaves with a string of good nights. Claudius blames her father’s death: “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, / But in battalions.” Polonius was buried in secret, the people are uneasy, and Laertes has returned from France.
At that moment a messenger bursts in. Laertes has raised a mob that is shouting “Laertes shall be king!” Laertes breaks down the doors: “O thou vile king, / Give me my father!” He does not care what it costs him: “To hell, allegiance!” When Gertrude tries to hold him back, Claudius stays calm: “Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person: / There’s such divinity doth hedge a king.” He tells Laertes that he is not guilty of Polonius’s death, and offers to prove it.
Ophelia returns, and Laertes sees his sister’s madness for the first time. She hands out flowers, each with its meaning: “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.” There are fennel and columbines, rue for sorrow, a daisy. “I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died.” She sings a last song for a dead old man and leaves. Claudius promises Laertes that if a fair judgment finds the king guilty, he will give up his kingdom. If not, Laertes shall have his revenge on the real killer: “where the offence is let the great axe fall.”
Act 4, Scene 6: Hamlet’s Letter
Sailors bring Horatio a letter from Hamlet.
Two days out at sea, Hamlet writes, a pirate ship chased them. In the fight, Hamlet boarded the pirates’ ship, which then pulled away, “so I alone became their prisoner.” The pirates have treated him well, like “thieves of mercy,” in exchange for a favor. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sailed on for England, and of them, Hamlet has “much to tell.” The sailors also carry letters for the king. Horatio is to deliver them and then come to Hamlet with all speed.
Act 4, Scene 7: The Plot and Ophelia’s Death
Claudius has convinced Laertes that Hamlet killed Polonius and wants the king dead too.
Why, Laertes asks, has Claudius not punished Hamlet? For two reasons, the king answers: the queen lives almost by her son’s looks, and the common people love him. Then a messenger brings Hamlet’s letter to the king, announcing that he is back in Denmark. Claudius asks Laertes what he would do to show himself his father’s son. Laertes does not hesitate: “To cut his throat i’ the church.” “No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize,” Claudius agrees. “Revenge should have no bounds.”
The king proposes a fencing match. Hamlet, being trusting and careless, will not check the swords, so Laertes can choose one that is “unbated,” without the protective blunt tip. Laertes adds his own idea: he has bought a poison so deadly that a scratch will kill, and he will coat the point with it. Claudius adds a backup: if the sword fails, he will have a poisoned cup of wine ready for Hamlet to drink during the match.
Gertrude enters with terrible news: “There is a willow grows aslant a brook.” Ophelia climbed it to hang garlands of wildflowers, a branch broke, and she fell into the stream. Her clothes held her up for a while as she sang old songs, as if she did not understand her danger, until they grew heavy with water and pulled her down “To muddy death.” Laertes tries not to weep: “Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, / And therefore I forbid my tears.” But he cannot stop them, and he leaves.
A Closer Reading: “To Cut His Throat I’ the Church”
Act 4 gives Hamlet two mirrors: two other sons with fathers to avenge. Each of them does what Hamlet could not, and the play asks the audience to decide whether that is a virtue.
Fortinbras, whose father was killed by Hamlet’s father, leads thousands to die for a patch of ground, and Hamlet admires the resolve even as he sees its emptiness. Laertes is closer still. His father was killed by Hamlet, and his response is everything Hamlet’s was not. He does not wait for proof or doubt what he has been told. He comes home, raises a mob, and breaks down the king’s doors within a scene. “To hell, allegiance!” he cries. He would damn himself for revenge.
Then Claudius asks him how far he would go, and Laertes gives the answer that turns Act 3 inside out: “To cut his throat i’ the church.” In Act 3, Hamlet found his enemy at prayer and would not kill him there. Laertes would kill his enemy in a church without a second thought. Claudius, the murderer who could not pray, approves: “Revenge should have no bounds.”
Laertes is the ideal revenger, and that is exactly what makes him useful to Claudius. Because he acts without testing anything, the king can point him wherever he likes, and within minutes Laertes has agreed to a secret, poisoned trick. Hamlet’s delay has looked like weakness for three acts, and he has called himself a coward for it. But his caution about the ghost, his need for proof, and his refusal to kill at the altar were also what kept him from becoming someone else’s instrument. Laertes, who never hesitates, becomes the villain’s tool. Our guide to the themes in Hamlet follows revenge and delay through the whole play.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Act 4 of Hamlet, answered briefly.
What Happens in Act 4 of Hamlet?
Claudius sends Hamlet to England with secret orders for his execution. Ophelia goes mad after her father’s death, and Laertes returns to Denmark demanding revenge. Hamlet escapes on a pirate ship and comes back, and Claudius and Laertes plot to kill him in a fencing match. The act ends with news that Ophelia has drowned.
How Does Ophelia Die?
According to Gertrude, Ophelia climbed a willow over a brook to hang garlands of flowers. A branch broke and she fell into the water, where she floated for a while, singing, until her soaked clothes pulled her under. Whether her death was an accident or suicide is debated in Act 5.
What Do Ophelia’s Flowers Mean?
She names some meanings herself: rosemary is “for remembrance” and pansies are “for thoughts,” and she calls rue the “herb of grace.” The violets, she says, all withered when her father died, so she has none to give.
What Is Claudius’s Plan to Kill Hamlet?
A fencing match in which Laertes uses a sharp, unblunted sword with a poisoned tip. As a backup, Claudius will offer Hamlet a cup of poisoned wine during the match.
Why Doesn’t Claudius Punish Hamlet Openly?
He gives two reasons: Gertrude loves her son deeply, and the common people love Hamlet and would turn against the king.
Related Reading
Three pages that take Hamlet further.