Hamlet and Laertes's deaths account for the denouement of the play, where both characters avenge their father's deaths, resolve their conflicts, and punish Claudius for his treachery. Before the fencing match begins, Hamlet apologizes to Laertes for killing his father and Laertes feels guilty for using a poison-tipped foil during the fencing match. After Laertes wounds Hamlet with his poison-tipped foil, a scuffle ensues and Hamlet picks up Laertes's lethal foil. Shortly after Hamlet strikes Laertes, Gertrude dies from drinking the poisoned wine and Claudius's treachery is revealed. Hamlet then stabs Claudius with the poison-tipped foil and forces him to drink from the same cup as Gertrude. Hamlet and Laertes's tragic deaths, along with Gertrude and Claudius's deaths, resolve the various conflicts throughout the play in a tragic manner. The audience also sympathizes with Hamlet and Laertes when they both forgive each other before they die, which lightens the weight of their sins and provides a sense of closure to the scene.
The deaths of Hamlet and Laertes mark the end of the tragic denouement of the play. Laertes, bent on avenging the deaths of his father and sister, both of which he blames on Hamlet, conspires with King Claudius to murder the prince during a fencing competition. Laertes does his part, cutting Hamlet with a poisoned blade, but in the fight that ensues, Laertes is himself cut with the blade. Mortally wounded, he blames the King for the treacherous scheme. With nothing left to lose, Hamlet stabs the King to death in front of the audience. The deaths of Hamlet and Laertes, two characters who are quite symmetrical in their sense of grievance and in their quest to gain revenge, bring the plot to a close and clear the way for young Fortinbras (another young man who has much in common with Hamlet) to take the throne of Denmark. Significantly, the chaos created by Claudius's treachery is resolved.
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