Foreshadowing Corruption In Hamlet

Hamlet is a tale of despair and murder. Throughout the play, Shakespeare weaves a web of death, love, and betrayal that intrigued people of the time period and is still read widely today. The tale tells of the death of a king, and it follows his son Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, takes the throne and marries his dead brother's wife only a month after his death. Soon after the ghost of the old king appears to young Hamlet and tells him he was murdered by none other than his brother Claudius, the new king. Hamlet then tries to prove Claudius' guilt and begins to slip slowly into madness. The key points in the plot of Hamlet are the meeting with the ghost, proving Claudius' guilt, and the ironic and untimely deaths of different characters. In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare draws a picture very complex and intriguing using imagery and diction.

Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, begins as an admired and noble young man. However, fate and the turn of events lead the tragic hero the depths of his fortunes. The tragedy starts with the death of the heroic King Hamlet. His brother, Claudius is the successor as King of Denmark and married the protagonist’s mother. When a ghost of the late King Hamlet appears, Hamlet’s downfall begins. The ghost explains to Hamlet that Claudius killed his father “upon my secure hour thy uncle stole with juice of cursed hebona in a vial, and in the porches of my ears did pour the leperous distilment, whose effect holds such an enmity with blood of man” (1001). Hamlet then feels like he must get revenge against Claudius and sets out to plot how it will happen. King Claudius senses something suspicious about Hamlet and sends for Hamlet’s two

Speaking of the disaster-prone Denmark that is presented in this play, Hamlet, the beloved main character, is a magnificent representation of the dysfunction that lies among the Great Chain of Being. Hamlet shows signs of having immense depression, suicidal thoughts, and considerations of fleeing Denmark. When someone wants to escape the country after a leader’s death, it is pretty obvious that something is tousled. After Claudius calls him a coward for being upset over Old Hamlet’s death and Gertrude basically forces him to

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.

Early on in Hamlet, a guard slightly mentions that there is “something rotten in the state of Denmark” (Shakespeare, I.iv.90). The tranquility of Denmark is suddenly shattered by Claudius’s marriage to

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet has been widely regarded as one of the greatest tragedies ever written. One prominent theme exemplified in this particular play is the theme of rottenness or decay. Shakespeare uniquely uses disease, rotting, and decay in order to reveal the manifestation and consequence of moral corruption. Physical corruption mirrors the moral corruption within the characters in the play. The moral corruption in Denmark is showcased for the readers throughout the play by images of physical corruption and disease. Shakespeare argues in Hamlet that sin or moral corruption is like a disease that leads one to one’s own “death” or demise. Nobody is immune from it.

Hamlet returns to Denmark to quickly find that a hasty “incestuous” marriage between his widowed mother and his uncle would all too quickly follow his own father’s funeral. Perhaps the most significant sign that all was not right in Denmark was the apparition of the slain former King. Hamlet’s father’s apparition is viewed by Hamlet and his company as an open sign that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (1068). From this first revelation, Hamlet learns by degrees of the evil that attempts to hide itself behind the “legitimate” passing on of the throne. Hamlet gets a first glimpse of the evil in the appearance of the restless soul of his father, later, more so with that ghost’s revelation of the murderous truth to Hamlet, up until Hamlet’s own observation of Cladius’ unique

When the fallen King Hamlet returns as the Ghost to warn Hamlet about the corruption in Elsinore,Hamlet learns the cause of his father’s death: he was murdered at the hand of Claudius by way of poison. The Ghost insists that Hamlet evens the score of his death by killing Claudius and therefore wiping out the foul disease that has taken hold. Contrary to the current state of affairs, under King Hamlet the kingdom of Denmark had been honored and respected and recognized as strong and good.During this time, Denmark could have been compared to a garden that has been looked after and cared for, unlike the “unweeded garden” it became under the sinful rule of Claudius (1.2.139). Marcellus’ comment refers to this and that Claudius is the impetus for the rot of the country. Claudius’ murderous plan, which gave him his new founded power, has begun the infection of the people around him. The Ghost tells Hamlet to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (1.5.31). The image of Claudius’ foul sin of murder is exhibited by the suggestions of physical contagion in the night air. Adjectives such as nasty, rank, blasted, and infected have “powerful connotations of physical evil” and all point to the situation that has befallen the castle (Altick 171).

The play, Hamlet, is filled with great acts of corruption that result from the many diseased mentalities existing in the Kingdom of Denmark. In the early scenes of the play, after seeing the ghost of King Hamlet, Marcellus reflects on the condition of the country. The guard says, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," (Act I, iv, Line 100). Marcellus infers to the reader that the appearance or apparition of the ghost of King Hamlet means that there must be extreme corruption mounting in the country. If it were not for the diseased mental state of Claudius, King Hamlet would not have been murdered nor would he come to speak to the guards of the kingdom. After the death of his sister, Laeretes, the son of the king's late advisor, speaks to King Claudius about seeking justice for the deaths of Ophelia and his father, Polonius. After discussion, King Claudius and Laeretes decided to plot the murder of Prince Hamlet together.  "And we shall jointly labor with your soul to give it due content," (Act IV, vi, Lines 225-226). King

   In Shakespeare's time, Denmark was a horrible, rotting, poisoned land due to its hidden deceit. In "Hamlet," Shakespeare makes many references to this as a means of clarifying relationships in the story. Writers often use imagery to provide detail and development, which help us understand ideas within and the atmosphere of the play. Hamlet, Horatio, and the ghost are the characters who allude to Denmark's state of decay. Shakespeare's frequent references to death and disease are not only evidence of the harsh and dirty living conditions of the time; they are a recurrent theme in all of his works.

Born 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom, William Shakespeare became one of the uttermost iconic poets, playwrights, and pre-eminent dramatists of his era, and also of all time, bringing great attention to the dramatic arts industry. His works consisted of umpteen comedies and tragedies written in a conventional style with intricate metaphors and rhetorical phrases. Furthermore, several of his characters and plots resemble genuine humans with their wide span of emotions and conflicts among one another. One of his more popular tragedies includes Hamlet. In his 14th to 15th century play, Hamlet, written in 1599 to 1601, the characters in and around the royal palace of Elsinore, Denmark, face ample conflicts, followed by different physical and mental methods of reacting and dealing with their inner and outer consciences. Early on in the play, Marcellus, an officer who first sees a ghost of Hamlet Sr. in the royal palace after his recent death, states “Something rotten in the state of Denmark,” (I, iv, 99) foreshadowing the expanding corruption within Elsinore, starting with selfish greed, evolving into manipulation of people, and resulting in unprincipled revenge.

   Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, a Shakespearean tragedy, tells the story of Prince Hamlet, who gained the knowledge of a terrible incident that his kingdom had suffered. Claudius, the king of Denmark and Hamlet's uncle, had killed his own brother, the king, who was also the father of Hamlet, and married his brother's widow. Hamlet suffered these traumas to a severe degree, and his only relief was to defeat his human weaknesses and correct the wrongs created by his uncle.

Throughout ‘Hamlet’ we have the images of death, decay, rottenness, and corruption embedded in the story. The imagery that Shakespeare uses in hamlet relates directly with the plots of the play perfectly. The corruptions images are illuminated in the beginning with Claudius own actions. The characters use metaphors of disease in the connection to sickness and rottenness. Within “Hamlet”, Shakespeare makes a number of references to Denmark 's tainted state due to the deceitfulness that lies within. Shakespeare uses death and decay to exemplify the death of the characters, and the decay of these characters that comes with those deaths, as well as the decay and death of morals and the death and decay that comes of political corruption of the government of Denmark. Denmark is repeatedly defined as a physical body made ill by the moral corruption of Claudius. They don 't know that Claudius isn 't legitimate throughout the play; characters draw clear links between the moral lawfulness of a ruler and the health of the nation. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern state their beliefs that health of a country is tied to the legitimacy of the King. Because death and decay are so prevalent throughout Hamlet, it could be said that Shakespeare intended for them to be a major theme.

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). As the play continues and the story enfolds, it becomes apparent that there truly is 'something rotten in the state of Denmark,' and rather that it is not just one 'something,' but many things.

Throughout William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, themes of rottenness and corruption are shown as the state of Denmark deteriorates when King Hamlet is murdered by his brother, Claudius. Hamlet Jr. knows of Claudius’ rotten deed, and spends a majority of the play conspiring to kill Claudius. In one of Hamlet’s many soliloquies, he states, “Tis an unweeded garden / That grows to seed”(i.ii.139). The “unweeded garden” begins with Claudius, and eventually corrupts Denmark as a country. Hamlet attempts to weed the growing garden of corruption to restore Denmark’s glory, but ultimately becomes a weed himself due to the nefarious acts he commits.