Hamlet essay

[vietcho187]

Make 3 points in the story of Hamlet that reveals corruption and decease within the kingdom.

[huntress4eva]

I havent got my hamlet book with me so this is of the top of my head but i would use the soliquays such as in to to solid flesh would melt the "tis an unweeded garden " is a metaphor for demark becoming overgrown and deceased, you can expand on how the fact hamlet see his home is now becoming nothing

[Danish]

So many to choose from:

1. Poisoning of Old Hamlet by Claudius - a central metaphor. The poisoning of OH parallels Claudius's moral poisoning of the Danish Court. The sores on the body of the King parallel the sores on the body of Denmark - people like Polonius and R and G, all of whom spy on the behalf of the King.
2. Pursue this metaphor by looking at the ways in which Claudius gets everyone in on the spying act. Polonius does it, R and G do it, Ophelia is manipulated into helping Polonius and Claudius do it.
3. The previously suggested reference to the 'unweeded garden'.
4. Hamlet's expressions of disgust at the hasty marriage between G and C. In the closet scene, he expresses this quite forcefully.
5. Ophelia's funeral - the words of the Clons (Gravediggers) emphasise the ways in which Claudius has usurped traditional Christian laws to provide Ophelia with a semblance of a decent burial. A modern audience might well understand it- Shakespeare's contemporaries would not have been so understanding.

[John-a-dreams]

1. The obvious one- that the residing King is a murdurer
2. That the Queen spurned her late husbands memory by marrying his brother so soon after the funeral, in order to satisfy her sexual desires
3. That Polonius, the kings advisor, spies on his own son
4. That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern agree to spy on their friend for university, Hamlet for the king and queen. Their desire for their services reward (money) corrupts friendship.
5. Incest...queen marrying her husbands brother
Hamlet can easily perceive the Kingdom's corruption- it taints his world view (as can be seen in Act II, scene ii, lines 290+