Hamlet: Shakespeares Play of Corruption, Decay, and Disease

Bruce V. Greeley
College English
April 19, 2014

Abstract
This research paper is about the multiple things that are rotten in the state of Denmark in the
famous Shakespearean play Hamlet. It goes into detail about the characters and images that
express disease, corruption, and decay. The characters are discussed in the order that follows:
Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Ophelia, Ghost, and Polonius. They
each had their own certain types of corruption to them, but the major characters that were
explained were Hamlet and Claudius. Claudius was by far the most corrupted character in the
story, though, and showed that he had a very radiating corruption onto others as well. The
research paper then finishes with a conclusion, and overall the paper shows the characters and
images of disease, corruption, and decay.

Hamlet: Shakespeares Play of Corruption, Decay, and Disease

There is definitely something rotten in Denmark, and the play Hamlet expresses that so
brilliantly. Hamlet is a play from the famous writer named William Shakespeare. It is told in five
Acts, and tells a story of betrayal, death, revenge, and corruption of almost every character. The
story contains a very large plot, and contains a couple subplots along the way. The main thing in
this play, though, is there are many things that are rotten in the state of Denmark that need to be
discussed, and that the characters and some imagines express disease, corruption, and decay.
The first character to be discussed is the main character Hamlet. He is a noble character that
has qualities that he must separate from the task he has been given and is tangled in. The task to
avenge his father was from the ghost of the story, and has been given to Hamlet to do. Hamlet
was corrupted by this dilemma, because no matter what he does it will go against his noble
standards for him to rule as king, and will morally affect him. This means that if he doesnt take
revenge it will make him a lesser person morally, but if he does take revenge then it would do the
same thing to him (Moriarity).
Hamlet also has a deep melancholy in him from the death of his father. This makes him have
fits of mania all throughout the play. Later in the play, we discover Hamlet is also an image of
disease since his will becomes unable to perform any actions to save Denmark and avenge his
father (Mabillard, Imagery of Disease and Corruption).
Hamlet also lets his emotions get the better of him, and this was one of the many factors that
led to his death. It also is evident in the play that people who killed other people in the play were
driven by the disease that corrupted their minds. Hamlet happened to be full of disease and
accidently killed Polonius, mistaking him for the King who was his real target. Killing another

person was clearly not the right thing to do, but Hamlet was acting based off of his emotion, and
this type of corruption always leads people to death (Moriarity).

Hamlet also does another act of corruption onto the travelling group of actors. He has them
add lines to the play (Silverstein), and does this by persuading them. Hamlet did this so he could
use it as a sick test of guilt for Claudius, because it was similar to the crime that Claudius had
committed ("Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.").
The next character that will be discussed is Hamlets mother Gertrude. Gertrude happens to be
corrupt by her shallowness, and how she thinks only about external pleasures and her body. She
also happens to have a very sexual nature, and this is one of the main things Hamlet gets upset
with her about. Hamlet is extremely upset with her, because of her quick marriage to Claudius,
and how soon after his fathers death it was too. The ghost in the story also gives us some
additional information about Gertrude in Act I Scene V. He talks about how Claudius lusted over
Gertrude, and that he corrupted and seduced her with his fancy gifts and clever words. The ghost
uses the words of her being contaminated by Claudius (Mabillard Introduction to Gertrude).
The character that is by far the center of corruption in this entire play is Claudius. When the
character Marcellus states, Something is rotten in the state of Denmark (Act I, Scene IV, Line
90), it can hold a symbolic meaning of that Claudius has had a corrupting effect onto Denmark,
due to him being completely unpunished for his crimes. The evil deed he performed to gain the
throne corrupted the people around him and has caused chaos, sorrow, and death. It is safe to
assume that Claudiuss image of rotting and his effect of radiating corruption can greatly
symbolize the almost infectious quality of sin onto others (Moriarity).
It is also evident that Claudius has a very corrupted soul inside of him. During the scene in

which Claudius tries to pray for forgiveness, it is made evident to the reader and to even
Claudius that he isnt able to gain penance. This was due to him just trying to say the words to
ask forgiveness, but he didnt put any real feeling into it (Silverstein).
The state of Denmark is also seen in a corrupt and weak condition, while under the rule of
Claudius. In the second scene of the play, Claudius is getting messages from Fortinbras to
surrender the lands that his father had lost during the old kings war. Claudius is fully aware of
this, and even states that he knows Fortinbras has no fear or respect of him like he did for the old
king. To deal with this problem, Claudius writes a letter to Norway, which is the uncle to
Fortinbras, which begs him to contain his nephew. Norway agrees to help Claudius, but this is
still shown as a sign of weakness on Claudiuss behalf. In the end they are able to prevent the
invasion from happening. Overall, though, this just goes to show how weak Denmark has
become under Claudius, and that Denmark use to be respected and feared while under the rule of
old King Hamlet (Crawford).
The king himself has also become a drunkard, and has taken fancy in doing anything that
pleases him. By doing this, he is only adding on to the further corruption of himself, and is
making Denmark decay more. Hamlet discusses this with his friend Horatio in the second and
fourth scene of the play, and Hamlet states the obvious of that it has destroyed their reputation
with other countries, and that Denmark has a bad image now of everyone being seen as drunks
(Crawford).
The next set of characters is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. These characters were students
that attended Wittenberg with Hamlet, and were much liked by him until it had become evident
to Hamlet that they were corrupted by Claudius. Hamlet was able to catch on rather quickly
whenever they arrived in Denmark, because he stated to them that they were sent for. Hamlet

also says that they gave themselves away, due to them not being able to keep a poker face of
their true motive to spy on him. These characters, though, do not perform any crimes in the play,
but they are just as morally corrupt as everyone else, and they might even be worse because of
them going against their friend Hamlet (Eds. F. A. Purcell).
Ophelia is the next character of importance. Throughout the play Ophelia deals with much
emotional pain, which most is inflicted by Hamlet, and was thought to be one of the most
innocent characters of them all. It wasnt until Hamlet killed her father Polonius, that Ophelia
becomes corrupted. She goes insane because of being overburden with so much pain so quickly.
When she goes insane she begins to sing songs, and it leaves everyone with the reminder that the
corrupt world has taken its toll on her pure soul. The reader can also see the corruption in her
during the flower scene in which she says, There's a daisy. I would give you / some violets, but
they withered all when my father died. (Act IV, Scene V, Lines 161). The violet was supposed
to mean loyalty, and it is symbolic to her corruption, because the violets have all died just like
her loyal father did (Mabillard Ophelia).
The ghost character of the story is a great image of decay, corruption, rotting, and poison of
the play. The ghost says to Hamlet, I am thy fathers spirit, / Doomed for a certain term to walk
the night / And for the day confined to fast in fires, / Till the foul crimes done in my days of
nature / Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid / To tell the secrets of my prison house,
(Act I, Scene V, Lines 9 14) What this means is that the old king Hamlets soul has been
corrupt, because he was unable to pray for forgiveness before he had died. For punishment for
this his soul is in either hell during the day or in purgatory, where he has to roam the earth,
during the night (Silverstein). The ghost also says, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole / With
juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, / And in the porches of my ears did pour / The leperous

distilment, whose effect / Holds such an enmity with blood of man / That swift as quicksilver it
courses through / The natural gates and alleys of the body / And with a sudden vigor doth posset /
And curd, like eager droppings into milk, / The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine. / And
a most instant tetter barked about, / Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust / All my
smooth body (Act I, Scene V, Lines 66-78). This quote from the ghost only reinforces the
imagery of decay, by going on to explain his physical decay and poisoning of his body, and the
crust that was formed on his skin (Moriarity).
The final character of discussion is Polonius. Polonius is usually the most easily seen
corrupted character in Hamlet. It also happens that this characters corruption has happened way
before the play has even begun, and this can be seen by how easily he follows all of the kings
orders and by how he helps the king. He is very abusive and commanding of his children, and
lectures his son to be a gentleman and on how he should act on his trip to France (Moriarity).
While his son goes off onto his trip, though, he sends one of his agents to go and tempt him to
perform sins. Clearly he is a very evil man, because of how he is trying to corrupt his own son,
and how he is spying on his son with his agent (Silverstein). He also is abusive to his daughter
Ophelia, and commands her to no longer have any relations with Hamlet. Polonius also is clearly
corrupt, due to all of the scheming and plotting that he does to try and figure out information
about Hamlet. Due to all of his plotting, though, he is killed by Hamlet, because of how he spied
on him. His death in the story just goes to show the reader that characters who are corrupt lead
themselves to a fate of death (Moriarity).
Polonius is literally a sign of decay in this story as well. As Hamlet says, "Not where he eats,
but where he is eaten: a certain / convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your / worm is
your only emperor for diet: we fat all / creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for /

maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but / variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
/ that's the end (Act IV, Scene III, Lines 20-26)." Polonius had been hidden by Hamlet, and was
very literally decaying away, as humans do whenever they die (Silverstein).
In conclusion, Hamlet has many characters that are corrupt, diseased, and decaying. There are
also many signs in the story that point to why Denmark is in a rotten state. Overall, Hamlet is a
great play that contains some very unique and complex characters, and shows the corruption of
human nature and the fate of those that become corrupt.

Works Cited
Crawford, Alexander W. Hamlet, an Ideal Prince, and Other Essays in Shakespearean
Interpretation: Hamlet; Merchant of Venice; Othello; King Lear. Boston R.G. Badger,
1916. Shakespeare Online. 2 Aug. 2009. Web. 22 March 2014

"Hamlet, Prince of Denmark." The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2000. Credo Reference. Web. 22 March 2014.

Mabillard, Amanda. Imagery of Disease and Corruption in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Shakespeare

Online. 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 March 2014

Mabillard, Amanda. Introduction to Gertrude. Shakespeare Online. 15 Aug. 2008 Web. 22

March 2014

Mabillard, Amanda. Ophelia. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. Web. 22 March 2014

Moriarity, Rob. "Shakespeare: Hamlet - Corruption Is an Incurable Disease." London School of

Journalism. London School of Journalism, Oct. 2001. Web. 22 March 2014

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Eds. F. A. Purcell and L. M. Somers. Chicago: Scott, Foresman
and Co., 1916. Shakespeare Online. 2 Aug. 2013 Web. 22 March 2014

Silverstein, Zach. "Hamlet (play): What Are Some Examples of Corruption and Decay in
Shakespeare's Hamlet?" Quora. Quora, 12 Apr. 2013. Web. 22 March 2014