Scenes in this act
- Scene I Graveyard, skulls, and Ophelia's burial
Two gravediggers dig Ophelia's grave, she who drowned, and debate whether one who seeks his own death deserves Christian burial.
- Scene II The switched letter, the duel, and the deaths
Hamlet tells Horatio what happened on the voyage to England: unable to sleep, he got up in the cabin at night, stole the royal dispatches that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were carrying and, on opening the seal, found the order from Claudius that his head be cut off as soon as the English king read the letter.
Reading the act
Analysis
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