Iterative use of vivid and detailed imagery in a piece of literature is often a way of expressing a theme or concept in a literary work. This is the case in William Shakespeare"'"s Hamlet, a revenge tragedy that continually depicts the vibrant metaphors of manifesting corruption and festering disease in order to auger the impending calamities in the state of Denmark. Throughout Shakespeare"'"s play, there are successive images of deterioration, decay and death. These images are skilfully accomplished through the use of metaphors of rotting and dead gardens. Shakespeare wonderfully creates these metaphors that add great dimension to the play of Hamlet.
The garden metaphor is all throughout the play of Hamlet. This
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His rule will lead to the fall of Denmark. Another important point in this quote is that through the metaphor Hamlet sees Denmark as being completely taken over by things that are rank and gross like the corruption of characters like Polonius and Claudius. This passage is very important in Hamlet because it is the first reference to a garden in dismay and more importantly, it references to the horrible condition that Denmark is in.
Another instance where Shakespeare creates a metaphor between the state of Denmark and a garden is when Marcellus says to Horatio '"'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark'"' (1.4.67). This passage is very important in the play because it shows that Hamlet is not the only person concerned with the position that Denmark is in. This metaphor is hinting that Denmark is being left untended by the protector King Claudius. As the king, Claudius should be tending to Denmark to make it flourish and grow instead, Claudius neglects it and Denmark begins to wither away and eventually dies under his rule. This disregard of his '"'garden'"' shows that Claudius is the wrong person on the throne of Denmark. This excerpt also creates a sense of sickness and infection, exactly how an unattended garden would be. This is not a good image for Claudius and Denmark because people do not want to be in a country that is rotting from
William Shakespeare uses a multitude of major well-hidden symbols in his famous play, Hamlet. One of the first symbols to be uncovered early in the play is Hamlets father returning as an apparition. His father’s ghost reveals the plot of the play to the reader by telling Hamlet that Claudius, his uncle murdered him in cold blood and Hamlet must avenge him ultimately symbolizing death. Another a major yet well-hidden symbol within the play is the flowers that Ophelia hands out to her brother Laertes, the royal King Claudius and Queen Gertrude. Each type of flower handed out hint major clues about the characters that received flowers, which make them an extremely important symbol. The skull of Yorick is also a major symbol that hides vital
Here, Hamlet refers to Denmark as a prison, where he cannot escape. It seems as though he wants to get away from the new king and get out of being prince. Or he sees the world as a prison keeping him from reaching heaven, like some kind of other hell that is not purely hell nor heaven. But he ensures that the whole world isn’t a hellish prison, but you can infer from him saying Denmark is the worst prison, that it is the most hell-like place on earth in his mind.
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’s soul is an empty vase that gives place to nothing” (Cutrofello). Following his father’s death, Hamlet feels life has little meaning, he feels hopeless and believes there is no longer any thing good or worth living for in life. As he describes in Act 1, “ How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world... “Tis an unweeded garden...” (1:1, lines 136-139). In this line, Hamlet is explaining that comparing life after his father’s death to a garden that is overgrown and dead; unweeded, flat and stale. “The last and deepest source only reveals itself at the point in which all our foundations have been destroyed” (Carr). This quote expresses perfectly what Hamlet is feeling, he lost one of the most important figures to him, which ultimately caused his madness and insanity later in the play. The “source” that was revealed after his foundation, his father, was lost was Hamlet’s sense of mortality. Hamlet’s sense of his own mortality can be seen at various points through the play, for example, Hamlet expresses suicidal tendencies in a famous
Hamlet does not see a need to live in a world as corrupted as thee, for which the new king Claudius has taken over, and has made life miserable for him. Hamlet questions his belief in G-d, for he does not have a say or choice in anything that occurs. Hamlet continues to live in the "unweeded garden" (135), which he refers to Denmark being a prison, given that Claudius has demanded for him to stay close by his side. Stuck in the town of Denmark, Hamlet does not have the choice to go to college and get an education. Claudius and his mother Gertrude control his boring life, and it leaves Hamlet with nothing to do. Hamlet feels that the mourning of his father by his mother was too short, indicating to Hamlet a false mourn, or simply that she did not care for the death of her husband, the king, for so many years. Hamlet says that his mother moved on so quickly from a Sun G-d to basically a nobody, "So excellent a king, that was to this/ Hyperion to a satyr, so loving to my mother, / That he might not beteem the winds of heaven/ Vist her face too roughly" (139-141). Hamlet thinks of his father as being such a great guy and powerful, and doesn't see how his mother could move on from such a great man, yet to belittle
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
Hamlet, the first in Shakespeare's series of great tragedies, was initially classified as a problem play when the term became fashionable in the nineteenth century. Like Shakespeare's other tragic plays, Hamlet focuses on the complications arising from love, death, and betrayal. There are numerous examples of powerful imagery; however, none of them surpass the strong presence of repeated garden imagery. It is difficult to disregard of the similarities between Hamlet and the story of The Garden of Eden stated in the Bible. William Shakespeare parallels the Garden of Eden and the Royal Kingdom in Denmark to reveal corruption, temptation and the fall of innocence in the play. The image of a fallen Eden is threaded throughout the entire play, as Shakespeare tells not only of the fall of Elsinore but also of the destruction of Paradise.
In Hamlet, imagery of disease, poison and decay, are used by Shakespeare for a purpose. The descriptions of disease, poison, and decay help us understand the bitter relationships that exist in the play and Hamlet’s own cynicism. We see Hamlet’s pessimism in his soliloquy when he contemplates suicide. The resentful relationship that exists between Claudius and Hamlet is heightened with the use of imagery when Claudius asks about Polonius. Imagery enhances Claudius’ abhorrence of Hamlet. Shakespeare uses imagery in this play to deepen our understanding of the emotions experienced.
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.
But, is not willing to make a sacrifice since he does not want anyone else ruling Denmark besides himself. Not only that, but Claudius did not think about the impact that King Hamlet's death would have on Hamlet, Gertrude, and Denmark as a whole. Hamlet struggled significantly with his father's death and this was something that didn’t concern Claudius since he was not concerned about Hamlet’s well-being nor did he think about Hamlet while murdering his father. Also, Claudius never thought twice about how King Hamlet’s death would impact Denmark as a whole since he was a great ruler and his absence might cause the country to “crumble”. The only thing Claudius was concerned and blinded with was ruling the throne and not the fact that he would make an unfitting ruler and what would be best for the country since all he wants to do is control everyone. Furthermore, in the soliloquy, it is present that Claudius has a sense of guilt for murdering his
It develops Claudius’ character as the antagonist of the play; the audience knows Claudius is unhonourable and this action confirms this. Claudius has always hidden his thoughts of hatred towards his nephew/stepson until this moment in which he acts upon it. This develops plot as it causes the conflict between Claudius and Hamlet to heighten. Claudius wants Hamlet dead and Hamlet becomes aware of this after finding the orders from the passage later on in the play. This passage develops the theme that a nation’s health is reflective of the welfare of its people in charge. Claudius about how the King of England should still care for Denmark, and to show this care, they should “cure” Claudius of his problem. Hamlet acts as Claudius’ fever, showing the unhealthiness in the royal family that causes unrest among the state as a whole. The mention of the “Danish sword”, which refers to the harm England has endured from Denmark in the past. This is target to the Elizabethan audience as they are able to understand the relationship between the two nations and recognize how the two nations care for each
As the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare unfolds, atrocious events during the first act led to a mere officer sensing corruption throughout the country after witnessing the ghost of the late Hamlet, causing Marcellus to deliver the famous line, “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (1.4.90). Firstly, the hasty and incestuous marriage between Claudius and Gertrude already pose many unscrupulous issues. Hamlet expresses his moral disgust by using a metaphor to compare the current state of Denmark to “an unweeded garden, / That grows to seed” (1.2. 135-136), as the king and queen represent the weeds in Denmark. Weeds are known to take over gardens as they aggressively compete with plants for nutrients and water. Plants are favourable
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.
Within the Shakespearean tragic drama Hamlet there are a number of themes. Literary critics find it difficult to agree on the ranking of the themes. This essay will present the themes as they are illustrated in the play – and let the reader prioritize them.
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.