Hamlet: Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword It is commonly said that if you play too close with the fire, you are going to get burned. This generally means that if you live a dangerous lifestyle, then you will eventually falter and suffer the consequences. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, there are many cases where characters are killed because they lived a murderous lifestyle. Claudius murders his own brother and is then murdered himself. Laertes kills Hamlet but is killed himself before Hamlet dies. Hamlet murders Polonius and Laertes avenges his father by killing Hamlet. The lives and deaths of these three individuals are inextricably i