What is the name of the character who kills Hamlet?

Laertes is the character who kills Hamlet in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Laertes wounds Hamlet with a poisoned sword during a fencing match arranged by King Claudius. Claudius secretly helps design the plot: Laertes uses a sharpened foil coated with poison, while Claudius also prepares poisoned wine in case the blade fails.

The scheme collapses when Gertrude accidentally drinks the poisoned wine and dies. During the struggle, Hamlet and Laertes exchange weapons, allowing Hamlet to wound Laertes with the poisoned blade. As Laertes lies dying, he admits that Claudius engineered the trap and reconciles with Hamlet. Hamlet then uses the remaining poison to kill Claudius before the poison takes effect on him.

A common mix-up is Polonius, whom Hamlet kills earlier by mistake when he stabs through a tapestry. Claudius is also responsible for Hamlet’s death indirectly, but Laertes is the character whose poisoned sword delivers the fatal wound.