Examples Of Corruption In Hamlet

Hamlet: The Journey to the Internal Decay and Corruption of Denmark

In the tragic play Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the idea of disease to show the gradual growth of decay and corruption in the state of Denmark. With figurative language, including imagery, similes, and metaphors, Shakespeare truly shows his audience how much of “an unweeded garden”, Denmark has become. Shakespeare continuously uses disease as a motif throughout the play. Much like an actual disease that worsens over time, the contagion of the Danish Court gradually metastisizes, which eventually results in the complete destruction of Denmark as well as the deaths of almost everyone in the kingdom. Throughout this tragedy, Shakespeare’s imagery, metaphors, and analogies

Altick, Shakespeare, “...not only emphasized the theme of bodily corruption in Hamlet, but also the ‘revolting odors that accompany the process’”. As Shakespeare compares Denmark to an “unweeded garden”, he also refers to the term, “rank”, which, “refers to the fertile overgrowth of vegetation and also implies the kind of festering and rot that often accompanies lush foliage” (“Shmoop”). In the play, the “rank” surrounding Denmark is hidden by the surface of the kingdom. While on the outside, everything seems fine, on the inside the kingdom is gradually decaying and becoming, “Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love” (III.iv.96). Furthermore, with rank, comes a foul, and unbearable smell. From the king’s decomposing and rotting scaled flesh, to the recurrences of death, “The play indeed may justly be said to be enveloped in an atmosphere of stench” (Altick). Additionally, Altick also suggests that the imagery of stench throughout the play, “...represents the cunning and lecherousness of Claudius’s evil which has corrupted the whole kingdom of Denmark.” With Shakespeare's recurring imagery, he not only illustrates how Claudius, “ ...‘rankly abused’ the entire kingdom” (“Shmoop”), but provides a sense of rotten stenches that help bring the play to life, and maintain the theme of disease, internal decay, and