In Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet - the King of Denmark is murdered by his brother Claudius, who then takes the throne by marrying the King's widow. Hamlet encounters the ghost of his dead father, the late King, who retells the tale of his foul murder. Hamlet, outraged by his uncle's murderous plot vows to take revenge, and in order to hide his own murderous thoughts from those around him he feigns insanity. Hamlet's philosophical nature renders him incapable of action, but repelled by his mother's infidelity he spurns Ophelia, daughter of Polonius, whom he had courted but now treats with contempt.

Hamlet stages a play before his Uncle in which he re-enacts the murder, hoping in some way of verifying the ghosts story, and the King betrays himself thereby alluding to his guilt. Hamlet vehemently reproaches his mother for her part in the murder of his father, and thinking that his Uncle is behind the curtains listening, draws his sword and slays the figure hiding. But that was not his Uncle that he slew but Polonious, Ophelia's father. The death of her father and the rejection by Hamlet drive Ophelia out of her mind, and clutching garlands of flowers, she goes down to the water's edge, lays down and drowns.