5.3.1

Imagery of Corruption & Decay

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Imagery of Corruption & Decay in Hamlet

The imagery of corruption recurs throughout the play.

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Different meanings of corruption

  • The term can refer to moral corruption (e.g. Claudius’ murder of his brother), sexual corruption (e.g. what Hamlet sees as his mother’s incestuous lust) or physical corruption (e.g. the process of rot and decay which Hamlet confronts in the graveyard scene).
Illustrative background for **"Too sullied flesh"**Illustrative background for **"Too sullied flesh"** ?? "content

"Too sullied flesh"

  • Hamlet’s first soliloquy opens with the wish that his “too sullied flesh” will dissolve away.
  • He sees his own body as corrupted or tainted (“sullied”) by the incestuous marriage of his mother and uncle.
  • This imagery links to the metaphor of the “unweeded garden / That grows to seed” and becomes overgrown with “things rank and gross”.
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Metaphor: sickness of Denmark

  • This imagery of corruption and decay is also used to suggest that the whole state of Denmark is sick.
  • Laertes tells Ophelia that “the sanity and health of the whole state” depends upon Hamlet and, throughout Act One, various characters voice ideas about a sickness taking hold in the Danish state (e.g. Marcellus’ fear that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”).

Jump to other topics

1Introduction

2Plot Summary

3Character Profiles

4Key Themes

5Writing Techniques

6Context

7Critical Debates

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