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Hamlet | Act IV, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
Summary
Claudius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter; Claudius remarks on Gertrude’s sighing, which he asks her to explain. She dismisses the two young men, and then relates to Claudius the recent events in her closet; she says Hamlet, “in his lawless fit,” has killed Polonius. Claudius notes that he himself would have been killed, had he been the one hiding behind the curtain. He regrets that, out of love for Hamlet, he neglected to do what was best; that is, he “Should have kept short, restrained, and out of haunt / This mad young man,” but...
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Hamlet: Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 3 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 4 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 5 Summary and Analysis
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- Act IV, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
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- Act IV, Scene 3 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 4 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 5 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 6 Summary and Analysis
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- Act V, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
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Hamlet: Essays
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- Minor Characters and the Number Three
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- Staging for Shakespeare's Hamlet: Act II, Scene ii, Lines 85-221
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