Slade Ransdell: Act 5 Characters and Response

Characters

Hamlet: Finally confesses his love for Ophelia and remorse he has towards Laertes's family. He gets his revenge on Claudius, but unfortunately he dies in the process. He then blesses his friend Horatio and leaves his kingdom to young Fortinbras.
Laertes: Duels with Hamlet and lands a death blow, but he ends up poisoned as well. After being faced with death, he understands Hamlet's situation and quest and forgives him.
Ophelia: Drowns in a river after falling from a willow tree.
Claudius: Condemns his wife, nephew, and Laertes to death with poison, but then is destroyed by his own treachery and forced to drink the poisoned wine.
Gertrude: Mistakenly drinks from Hamlet's goblet and dies.
Gildenstern and Rosencrantz: Are executed by the King of England for betraying Hamlet.
Horatio: Lives to tell the story of the events that led to the tragedy at the castle.
Fortinbras: Returns from Poland to mourn Hamlet's death and honor his life. He then accepts the responsibility of ruling Denmark.
1st Clown: Gravedigger who dares to banter with Prince Hamlet
2nd Clown: Another gravedigger
Priest: He who performs Ophelia's funeral rites the sparseness of which Horatio vehemently objects to.
Osric: A courtier who is held in contempt by both Hamlet and Horatio

Response

The final act for me came as a rather surprising conclusion. I had expected for Hamlet and Laertes to both exact their revenge, but I had never suspected that so many people would suffer because of their actions. Ophelias death was the final straw that lead Laertes to use poison, and poison is what seemed to be the ultimate downfall of the royal family. Gertrude accidentally drank the poisoned wine and Claudius was stabbed and forced to drink poison as well. Finally, Hamlet was cut by a poisoned blade and doomed to die a slow death. I had expected this to happen, but what I didn't expect was that so many others would die in the process of Hamlet's revenge (Gertrude, Ophelia, Guildenstern, Rosencrantz, Laertes)