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The Tone Of Decay In Hamlet

Decent Essays

Early on in the play, Shakespeare establishes a tone of decay after Hamlet’s death when Marcellus says, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I. iv. 90). These distinctive words continue to be proven time and time again throughout the course of the play. To begin with, Gertrude and Claudius’s incestuous relationship starts up the chain of strange events. Hamlet recalls in a soliloquy “She married. O most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! / It is not nor it cannot come to good” (I. ii. 156-158). Claudius is supposedly the messenger of God on Earth; however, his actions are that of an immoral and dishonourable man. Gertrude is quick to forget her husband and enters into an incestuous relationship, suggesting

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