act 5

• “thou incestuous, murderous, damned dane/ Drink off this potion.”

  
  

  Hamlets death is neither heroic nor shameful, according to the moral logic of the play. Hamlet does however achieve his fathers vengeance, but only after it being spurred to it by the most extreme circumstances one might consider possible: watching his mother die and knowing that he too, will die in moments.
• When he does reach the end of his life, barely any time later, Hamlet says his last words of “the rest is silence.”

  
  

  Hamlet has the most lines of any character in a Shakespeare play, and throughout, words and thoughts have got in the way of action : now there is no more to be said.
• He dies, and Horatio, his closest friend; provides a suitably poignant farewell: “Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”.”

  
  

  In his act 3 soliloquy, Hamlet compared death to sleep, and feared “what dreams may come.” Horatio also uses sleep imagery here, wishing Hamlet “good night,” protected by angels, expressing the hope that Hamlet may now be at peace, now that his conflict with Claudius has ended.