Claudius’s reaction advances the central conflict of the play because?
a) he encourages laertes to seek revenge against hamlet.
b) offers forgiveness for laertes’s impulsive action.
c) suggests a peaceful resolution to laertes’s conflict.
d) accepts the blame for polonius’s death

a) he encourages Laertes to seek revenge against Hamlet.

Explanation:

In Shakespeare's "Hamlet," Claudius sees in Polonious's death the perfect opportunity to get rid of his nephew Prince Hamlet. In that matter, he stimulates Polonious' son Laertes to come back and take revenge against Hamlet. Actually, Claudius fears that Hamlet suspects that he murdered his father King Hamlet and soon married the queen to move on quickly and make people forget their former king. As a result, Claudius has plenty of reasons to do away with Hamlet and wants to make sure that he dies during the duel with Laertes.

the correct answer is:

this is an example of the writer telling through description rather than showing through dialogue.

sometimes writers like to explain explicitely what's happening instead of adding dialogues of the situations., which is the case in this passage,