Corruption In Hamlet

Hamlet is strongly held by archetypes that can be revealed throughout the play. Death, itself, is a very strong archetype in the story exploring the social beliefs in that era; superstitions and societies loyalty to religion. Throughout the play, Hamlet experiences his main trifles over the concept of death. Reviewing the murder of his father and the task given to him to kill his uncle, Hamlet becomes fascinated with the idea of existence and afterlife.As a whole, Hamlet is primarily concerned with exploring the individual's relationship with death in which our fear of death comes from the notion that there must be something else, eliminating the fact that we can't ever know for sure if there is. This idea is explored in Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy, which questions the righteousness of life over death in moral terms. When Hamlet utters the pained question, “to be, or not to be: that is the question / Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles” (Act 3, Scene 1 59-61) there is little doubt that he is thinking of death. Although he attempts to pose such a question in a rational and logical way, he is still left without an answer of whether the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” can be eliminated since life after death seems so uncertain. All of this mirrors aspects of human nature as man has always questioned the meaning of life and the events that occur after. Theoretically, one will never understand the full nature of our

“To be or not to be: That is the question” (Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1). The quote written by Shakespeare is one of the most known quotes in the world. From great scholars who have spent years studying works of Hamlet to the young adults who have never read a piece of Shakespearean literature. Almost everyone has heard or said this saying, but do they know what it means? The answer to that is not really. That saying is part of a great soliloquy, and people have been discussing what it truly means since Shakespeare has written it. Many will say it is about suicide, while others may argue that it is about taking charge. All that is known is that Shakespeare was an intelligent man, who was very hard to understand. However, throughout his stories

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a play written in the early 1600’s that illustrates the life and eventual downfall of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. This play is a tragedy that involves Hamlet going against his closest friends and family to reveal his uncle’s evil actions to the public, avenge his father’s murder at the same time. Naturally, in this tragedy, one of the most powerful underlying ideas is of waste. In a traditional Shakespearean tragedy, most characters die off near the denouement of the play. This is regardless of whether they are good hearted and innocent individuals, or whether they are evil. The more innocent the people that are negatively affected by the tragedy, the more the wastage is felt by the reader. This waste regards not only human lives, but also human qualities, ideas, relationships and even potential. Since everything is tied to one another in this play, the loss of these aspects in one point of the play will affect each and every other character in every scene that follows. In Hamlet, the feeling of waste is interpreted through the destruction of family life represented through Hamlet’s family, the loss of innocence in Ophelia and the destruction of love between Hamlet and Ophelia.

Hamlet is as much a story of emotional conflict, paranoia, and self-doubt as it is one of revenge and tragedy. The protagonist, Prince Hamlet of Denmark, is instructed by his slain father’s ghost to enact vengeance upon his uncle Claudius, whose treacherous murder of Hamlet’s father gave way to his rise to power. Overcome by anguish and obligation to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet ultimately commits a number of killings throughout the story. However, we are not to view the character Hamlet as a sick individual, but rather one who has been victimized by his own circumstances.

There is a lot of corruption in Hamlet by Shakespeare, but how does it effect the main character Hamlet? To start, corruption in this play is made up by multiple elements such as greed, manipulation and immoral choices. All of these elements and corruption as a whole may or may not have affected hamlet. This is the theme that I will be exploring in the following series of paragraphs.

The play ‘Hamlet’ written by William Shakespeare had many aspects of betrayal, a lack of loyalty, and tragic deaths. The storyline begins as a ghost appears and he resembles the late king of Denmark ‘Hamlet’. King Hamlet was Hamlets father, after his ghost appears Hamlet conversates with the figure and asks him why he is here, and the ghost states that his brother Claudius poisoned him by pouring poison in his ear while he was asleep, married his wife and finally took the power of the throne. Already in a confused state of mind Hamlet questions the ghost and decides to act delusional and put on a play to decide whether he will get revenge on Claudius. Consequently, one can tell how selfish both brothers Claudius and Hamlet are, how much do you have to hate your own family to commit such hatred. Ultimately blood is not thicker than water.

Throughout the tragedy of Hamlet, images of weeds, rotting flesh, poison, decay, and corruption are all common throughout the entire length of the play, but what exactly do these recurring motifs serve? I believe that these grotesque descriptions serve to help the reader understand the idea and feeling of the hostile relationship between Hamlet and the Royalties as well as the overall feeling of the tense and volatile atmosphere, in addition to the gradual decline of the country Denmark under Claudius’ rule. Weed and gardens in Hamlet. The weed imagery in Hamlet is first introduced in Hamlet’s first soliloquy, where the garden pest is is used to depict the unkempt and neglected state of Denmark under Claudius’ rule. Hamlet describes the

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the motif of corruption exposes the theme of how plotting for revenge infects victims with impurities by demonstrating that both the mind and body are subject to degradation. After Hamlet concluded that Claudius is guilty of the murder, he was not able to give Guildenstern “a wholesome answer; [his] wit’s diseased” (3.2.293). Since Hamlet had just realized that the ghost’s words were true, he was distracted by the fact that he had the responsibility of avenging his father. Hamlet also states that “the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought;” overthinking impedes one’s intention of taking action (3.1.84-85). In both instances, describing an aspect of the mind as corrupted with disease

The idea of corruption is ever-present in Shakespeare’s Hamlet through Shakespeare using different characters as a way to express the belief that corruption can end a whole kingdom. Since the king is supposed to represent his people, Claudius’s unethical actions throughout jeopardize the entire kingdom as it raises the question: how will the kingdom prosper when the King is so corrupt? With that being said, Hamlet’s solution to the misconducts seen in the government is to end it himself, yet that is nearly impossible as Hamlet is part of the corruption. However, unsurprisingly the one person who ultimately takes no part in any wrongdoings, Horatio, is the person who lives at the end, proving that righteousness triumphs immorality.

William Shakespeare's Hamlet According to American novelist, John Irving, in his work The World According to Garp, is a life-redeeming work in which everybody dies. “Death is the pervading theme of the play.” (Sheys 2016) The play has many examples and imagery of corruption, disease, and decay.

Mo Ibrahim once said, “Behind every corrupt politician are 10-20 corrupt businessmen”. Corruption has the ability to not only ruin close family relationships, but also cause many others to follow in the path and help the spread of corruption. This theme is seen throughout the book, Hamlet written by William Shakespeare. As this mentality of sinful acts is evident in the antagonist, Claudius, his mentality and actions has affected many other characters such as Hamlet, Gertrude and Ophelia. Claudius’s efforts to gain power through sinful acts have caused an unstable chain of events that leads to the kingdoms, and the royal families, ultimate demise.

No nation is entirely free from corruption. Nevertheless, if corruption is strong enough, it can hinder the good governance and decay the fabric of society. It is an obstacle to sustainable development, and leaves little room for justice to prevail. Central to the plot and the themes developed in Shakespeare 's Hamlet, are the varying elements of corruption, which occur during the play. This is echoed in Marcellus ' famous comment of 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, ' when Hamlet is beckoned away by the Ghost (1.4.90). The most obvious example of corruption in the play is the murder of king Hamlet by his brother Claudius followed shortly after the incestuous marriage of Gertrude and Claudius, a marriage that robs Hamlet of his throne. The next example is Hamlets vow with the ghost of his father to avenge his death and murder Claudius. Though those living in the Elizabethan era may find this vengeance righteous and just, the actions taken by Hamlet, such as the murder of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern following his father’s death, are cruel and unusual. The final example, the rapier match, challenged by Laertes towards Hamlet, ends in the demise of the entire corrupted, dynamic, characters in Hamlet. After knowing and analyzing all of the above examples of corruption in Hamlet, though it may not have been morally corrected, I think Hamlet was correct in wanting to take revenge upon Claudius.

In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, a corrupt and chaotic world is illustrated through the through the portrayal of contrasting realms, the interior and exterior. Within in the play, Shakespeare illustrates the story of a Danish prince, Hamlet, whose uncle murders the Hamlet’s father, marries his mother, and claims the throne leading to Hamlet’s journey to avenge his father all coinciding with in the city of Elsinore. Simultaneously with Hamlet’s journey Shakespeare juxtaposes a seemingly healthy exterior concealing an interior sickens of not only the people of Elsinore but the castle surrounding Elsinore itself. This reoccurring motif embodies the play with a duplicit nature, one of concealed evil and disease that continually reminds us that, in both a specific and a broader sense, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I.i.4). This construct is exemplified through an established dichotomy of interior and exterior thematic perceptions of health from the physical setting to the characters in the Hamlet, overarching the theme of corruption to further shed light on the duplicit nature of society thus providing support for the unveiling of the truth cultivate a better understanding of how to act within society and overall lead to greater benefits for society as a whole.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Old King Hamlet dies before the play even begins setting the tone for a dark and mournful play. His mother’s swift decisions make for disastrous outcomes. Revenge fuels Hamlet throughout the course of his journey. Hamlet’s indecisiveness sequentially causes more suffering than needed. Hamlet’s broken state stems from his situation with his mother, his father’s death, and his inability to act.

Prince Hamlet is depressed. Having been summoned home to Denmark from school in Germany to attend his father's funeral, he is shocked to find his mother Gertrude already remarried. The Queen has wed Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, the dead king's brother. To Hamlet, the marriage is "foul incest." Worse still, Claudius has had himself crowned King despite the fact that Hamlet was his father's heir to the throne. Hamlet suspects foul play.