Examples Of Corruption In Hamlet
Harold Blume said it best when he said, "Hamlet is deaths ambassador to us." Throughout Hamlet, we have the images of death, decay, rottenness, and corruption pressed upon us. The imagery corresponds with the plot of the play perfectly, all culminating with the gravedigger scene. The corruption images illuminate the actions of the people in Claudius' court, beginning with Claudius' own actions.
The beginning of the play lets us know that it is winter with Fransisco's statement that it is "bitter cold" (1.1.6) This may be an allusion to death in itself things are dead in winter. The guards speak of the ghost and we know right away that we have a supernatural theme, as well as a theme of death. In act 1 scene 2 we get the impression that King Hamlet has been gone for a while. Gertrude is …show more content…
(4.2.27-32)
Claudius does not want to hear this at all, and persists in interrogating Hamlet about Polonius body. Hamlet insists on jabbing him one more time before finally telling him where the body is.
In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger
find him not there, seek him i' th' other place
yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within
this month, you shall nose him as you go up the
stairs into the lobby.
(4.3.33-6)
Hamlet uses the same sort of analogy in the graveyard scene. This scene is meant to be humorous and the references to death are true references and not just imagery.
Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he
was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
(5.1.192-7)
Hamlet is coming to terms with his own mortality and realizing the true physical destiny. He finds irony in the fact that a king could become a meal for a peasant, a seal for a beer-barrel, or a patch to keep wind out of a
The beginning of the play lets us know that it is winter with Fransisco's statement that it is "bitter cold" (1.1.6) This may be an allusion to death in itself things are dead in winter. The guards speak of the ghost and we know right away that we have a supernatural theme, as well as a theme of death. In act 1 scene 2 we get the impression that King Hamlet has been gone for a while. Gertrude is …show more content…
(4.2.27-32)
Claudius does not want to hear this at all, and persists in interrogating Hamlet about Polonius body. Hamlet insists on jabbing him one more time before finally telling him where the body is.
In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger
find him not there, seek him i' th' other place
yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within
this month, you shall nose him as you go up the
stairs into the lobby.
(4.3.33-6)
Hamlet uses the same sort of analogy in the graveyard scene. This scene is meant to be humorous and the references to death are true references and not just imagery.
Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he
was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
(5.1.192-7)
Hamlet is coming to terms with his own mortality and realizing the true physical destiny. He finds irony in the fact that a king could become a meal for a peasant, a seal for a beer-barrel, or a patch to keep wind out of a