Hamlet ends with the deaths of Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius and Hamlet himself in the duel arranged by the king, and with the arrival of Fortinbras, prince of Norway, who finds the royal family dead and claims the throne of Denmark.
In Act V, scene 2, Hamlet tells Horatio that on the ship he opened the royal dispatch, which ordered his head cut off, and replaced it with another that orders the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Then he accepts the duel with Laertes. What he does not know is that Laertes's sword has a sharp, poisoned tip and that Claudius has left a cup of poisoned wine ready.
Gertrude drinks from the cup, despite the king's request that she not drink, and says: "The drink, the drink! I am poisoned." Laertes wounds Hamlet; in the struggle the swords change hands, and Hamlet wounds him with the same blade. Laertes, dying, accuses: "The king, the king's to blame." Hamlet drives the blade into Claudius and forces him to drink the wine, and they forgive each other.
Hamlet stops Horatio from drinking the poison and asks him to tell his story. Hearing Fortinbras's cannons, he says he supports him as successor, and his last words are "The rest is silence." Fortinbras arrives, says he has "some rights of memory in this kingdom," and orders four captains to carry Hamlet to the stage "like a soldier," because he, "had he been put on, would probably have proved worthy to reign."