The scene where Hamlet duels Laertes was a scene with a specific goal. In this scene Claudius makes Laertes and Hamlet dues. Laertes has a plan that cannot fail because if he doesn't kill Claudius with a poison sword he will drink the poison. Yet, he does not know that he is really being manipulated by clausius to get him to do his dirty work. Claudius just wants hamlet dead and will do whatever he can to do this. Laertes is just another one of his pawns used to kill Hamlet. When Hamlet goes to fence Laertes he asks for forgiveness but is denied. They say that if Hamlet wins the first hit he will drink from the cup. He wins but declines the cup so Gertrude decides to drink from the poisoned cup. Hamlet is then hit by Laertes sword and he manages to hit Laertes with his own sword poisoning them both. The queen then dies from the poisoned cut where Laertes reveals the kings plot. Hamlet then runs to Claudius with the wine and forces him to drink the wine killing him. Everyone dies and Hamlet tells his one true friend Horatio to pass on his story. This scene set the mood of the entire story. It shows that the story was tragic, and shows the dimness throughout the story. It shows betrayal and sneakiness which is also expressed throughout the story. Claudius acts reckless in this scene. He takes the duel against Horatio's advise. Claudius acts brave in this scene, and courageous, which I think is his true self. Claudius is shown as a hero in this scene. Claudius only had one goal and that was to win the duel. Of course he had the goal of killing claudius over his head for a long time, except he had no intentions of killing him then. However when he realised he was trick his motivations changed. With his last breaths he was able to get his revenge and kill claudius. Finally, his overall goal that he had been aspiring to achieve for the entire play had been accomplished. In the big picture hamlet wanted one thing. He wanted to take vengeance on the king who had both tried to kill him and his dad. At the same time everyone who had betrayed him was also killed at the same time. Hamlet's true friend was the only one who remained alive to pass on Hamlet's tail. This shows that Hamlet is smart and able to overcome any obstacles in his way. Dying was not necessarily a loss for hamlet. Earlier in the play Hamlet talks about how dying is like sleeping. He was contemplating suicide but it is a moral sin. This answered his problems in his to be or not to be speech. He was able to take arms against a sea of troubles, and die without it being a scene. This scene cleared Hamlets name and passed on the message possibly for centuries that he is a Hero. Although tragic, Hamlets dreams were answered in this phenomenal scene that portrayed death, slyness, and vengeance.