The Final Scene.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, I think that the most interesting scene in the play is the very last scene of the entire play; Scene 2 of Act 5. In this scene, all the main characters are watching a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet so Laertes can avenge his father. The pretense of the match allows other unexpected things to happen. For example, Laertes and Hamlet are supposed to fence, but one of the swords is poisoned by Laertes and the king in an effort to kill Hamlet. During the fight, Hamlet ends up with the poisoned sword and stabs Laertes with it. This is ironic because the only reason Laertes dies was because of the sword that he poisoned. That is one reason why this scene was so interesting; the plot twists allowed the readers to not know what will happen and created excitement. Another example is when the king poisons the wine that Hamlet was supposed to drink. The queen ends up drinking it, but Claudius’s reaction is not what I would have expected. Because he does not do something drastic to try and save Gertrude, it leads me to believe that he did not really care for her; that maybe he was only using her as a means to get to the throne. This example shows how, in this scene, the real motives of the characters are revealed. After I first read this scene, I felt a sense of incompleteness because it did not feel as if any of the problems were solved. By the end of the scene, the majority of characters just die: nothing is resolved. It also made me feel regret because the characters never got a chance to do anything about the information that they found out before they died. For example, I think that Gertrude probably realized that her new husband was the one poisoned the cup meant for her son while she was dying. But she never had to chance to confront him about his actions. I think that this is the main reasons why Hamlet is considered a tragedy; none the problems are solved, but all the characters still die.