Hamlet illustrates how the theme of madness keeps the play in suspense through the conscience of the young princes mind.
During the play Hamlet finds Claudius sitting in a confession booth in a church.
Claudius has no idea Hamlet is there and the prince thinks of this as an advantage to him, this is where he plans to kill the King. Lost in thought, Hamlet decides that if he does kill Claudius he does not want it to be in a confession booth, he says “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, And now I'll do 't. [He draws his sword.] And so he goes to heaven And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd: A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven.”(iii iii 186) Many Hamlet scholars think that Hamlet is scared to kill Claudius and the only reason he even thinks of this is because the ghost of his father tells him too. This decision that Hamlet makes prolongs the death and gives him more time to think, this in the end is not a good decision for the young prince and keeps the play very suspenseful. During the time after this part in the play Hamlet is talking to his mother in her room, he hears a noise and thinks it is the king so without thinking he rushes to the curtain and begins to stab what he thinks is Claudius ese dropping on their conversation. The mysterious noise in the curtain turns out to be Polonius, Hamlet then becomes a murderer and uses this accident to his advantage against the
king. The conclusion of the play is full of death and tragedy. Hamlet's plan for the actors to force Claudius to confess works and Hamlet knows for sure that the ghost is right and Claudius did kill his father the late king Hamlet. Out of hate for Hamlet, Laureates, the son of Polonius, challenges him to a duel the king and Laureates have planned to kill Hamlet by poisoning the sword that Laureates is using, If that does not work they decide to poison Hamlet's drink. Hamlet wins the duel and to celebrate the king makes a toast, he gives hamlet the poisoned drink but Hamlet declines and gives it to his mother Gertrude who has been watching the whole time, the king gives her a subtle warning by saying “Gertrude, do not drink.” To which she responds “I will, my lord, I pray you to pardon me.”(V ii 300) she drinks and sits down. Laertes has had enough, he challenges him to another duel but without the armor this time there is poison on his sword and he is looking to strike Hamlet anywhere he can. In the midst of their fight he cuts Hamlet, Hamlet then realises the sword is poisoned and begins to fight him, he pushes Laureates over the balcony where he falls and dies. All of a sudden Gertrude falls to the floor and says “No,no,the drink,the drink! O my dear Hamlet! The drink, the drink! I am poisoned.” And dies. Hamlet the rushes over to the king with the sword that he had been cut with and had the poison on it and stabbed it into the king's chest. Finally it was done, the king had died and Hamlet got the revenge he was seeking