Who is Hamlet forced to kill?

Answer 1

Hamlet slips quietly into the room and steels himself to kill the unseeing Claudius. But suddenly it occurs to him that if he kills Claudius while he is praying, he will be effectively sending his murderous uncle to heaven as a reward for killing his father, who is enduring a painful purgatory because he didn't receive the benefits of a pre-mortem absolution.

Unfortunately, this isn't very relevant to the question as it stands, because, in spite of Hamlet's motivation to kill Claudius, he is never actually forced to do so; by the time he finally takes action in the last scene, he is almost frantically trying to get the job done before Laertes' poison does him in.

In fact, Hamlet is not forced to kill a single person in the play. Check out everyone whose death Hamlet is responsible for:

1. Polonius is killed by accident. When Hamlet speaks with his mother in her chamber after the play-within-a-play, his passionate condemnation makes the hidden Polonius think that Gertrude is in danger, so he calls for help. Hamlet, believing the man behind the curtain to be his uncle, stabs him through it. Of course, he is disappointed when he realizes who it actually is.

2. Laertes is killed because, in the energetic sword fight of Act V, scene ii, his poisoned sword is exchanged with Hamlet's and, as a result, he is himself wounded and, therefore, poisoned.

3 & 4. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern accompany Hamlet to England and are unaware that they are supposed to be carrying a letter commanding Hamlet's immediate execution. On the voyage, Hamlet discovers the letter, substitutes one that commands the immediate execution of the bearers of the letter, and then is fortuitously carried off by pirates before he can have second thoughts about causing the death of his school fellows.

5. Although Ophelia technically is responsible for her own death--given that she makes no effort to save herself when she falls into the water and subsequently drowns--her madness could conceivably be blamed on Hamlet, because he is brutally blunt and hostile when he transfers his anger with his own mother onto his ex-girlfriend in the infamous "Get thee to a nunnery" scene. Even so, nobody could conclude that Hamlet is directly responsible for her death.

Nope. Hamlet isn't forced to kill anyone.