(ii)
I agree that Shakespeare uses a variety of techniques to convey a world of corruption in the play ‘Hamlet’.
In Shakespearean drama imagery plays a major part in illuminating character and in illustrating and emphasising themes. Images of sickness, stench, disease and corruption are frequent in ‘Hamlet’. This imagery applies to the plant, human and animal world, and reinforces the moral and political corruption within that world. When Hamlet, in his first soliloquy, describes the world as �an unweeded garden� the metaphor emphasises the rot that has set in, a moral rot, sick and poisonous making the moral climate of Denmark �rank and gross�. Laertes uses the same image of a diseased plant when he is being the protective brother to Ophelia and is warning her how easily she may acquire an immoral reputation:
�The canker galls the infants of the spring
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed…�
And she may be in danger of �contagious blastments�.
The Ghost, victim of the moral and political corruption that is infecting Denmark, reflects it in his speech to his son. He, too, uses an image of stench and rottenness when he describes the immorality of his wife; she has preyed �on garbage�. The rot becomes an appalling image of sickness and disease, of the putrefaction of the human body, in the Ghost’s graphic account of his own death. The �leprous distilment� �…Doth posset and curd� the blood, until it covered, �Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust/All my smooth body�. Since the king was the body of Denmark, his physical corruption, by �a brother’s hand�, symbolises the political corruption of the state under Claudius. Following on these images of disease and corruption in the human body, we see it reflected in the animal world when Hamlet tells Polonius, �if the sun breeds maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion�. The symbol suggests that the very highest and most powerful element in the universe can corrupt and it points towards corruption in the Royal family.
Shakespeare very successfully uses characterisation, and in particular, the character of Claudius, to convey a world of corruption. No matter how well he manages the affairs of the state, his fratricide ensures that he is sullied. He realises that his �offence is rank� but he is not prepared to give up the �effects for which� he did the murder. Hamlet calls his uncle a �mildewed ear, blasting his wholesome brother�. In Act Three, Scene Three Rosencrantz states that the king is like:
�…a massy wheel
Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised and adjoined…�
This is so in ‘Hamlet’. The corrupted King spreads his corruption throughout the whole court. Shakespeare portrays this effect brilliantly in the sub plot of the play.
Laertes, who even Hamlet calls �a very noble youth�, is exploited and corrupted by Claudius. He persuades him to agree to the fencing match that will kill Hamlet by manipulating him with the lines:
�…was your father dear to you?
Or are you like a painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?�
Once Laertes agrees to do this evil deed, he becomes corrupted and devises the poisoned foil plan.
As the king’s chief advisor, it is no surprise that Polonius and his actions add to the world of corruption in the play. His great loyalty towards the king prompts him to spy on Hamlet and even use his own daughter as bait. Even the innocent Ophelia is corrupted by her father’s and Claudius’ plans. Her obedience to her father leads her to lie to Hamlet. Also, her father’s death and Hamlet’s rejection of her lead to her loss of sanity and innocence. Ophelia’s mad ramblings are full of bawdy innuendoes.
Shakespeare makes great use of setting in order to convey a world of corruption in ‘Hamlet’. The play opens in the dark with a nervous exchange between soldiers. People are suspicious of each other. The state is readying for war and a ghost has appeared. In Act One, Scene Four; Marcellus says that, �Something is rotten in the state of Denmark�. Indeed, the state is corrupt. It is clear that no one except Hamlet objects to the king’s �o’erhasty marriage�. The ghost entreats Hamlet:
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest.�
The state of Denmark is renowned for its drinking and revelry, a quality Hamlet considers, �More honoured in the breach than in the observance�.
In Act Five, Scene Two; we are introduced to Osric, a shallow, superficial character and a symbol of the corruption in the court. We are told, �He hath much land, and fertile: let the beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king’s mess�. The king’s estimation of his courtiers is based on materialistic gain rather than noble and honourable qualities.
Shakespeare’s plot conveys the corruption in Denmark. Spying and deception is ubiquitous. It is no real surprise that Claudius will attempt to destroy Hamlet, the only real figure of truth and nobility in the state. Indeed, Shakespeare exploits the �noble� Hamlet to emphasise the corrupt nature of the state.
At the beginning of the play he is the only one who is still in mourning for the old Hamlet. His melancholy is due to what he sees as �an unweeded garden�. He is disgusted with his mother who has travelled �with such dexterity to incestuous sheets�. He acts as a moral guide to his mother. When he speaks to her about her amoral actions, she tells him:
�Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul,
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct�.
Much of Hamlet’s feelings are revealed throughout his soliloquies. These provide the audience with a chance to see the real Hamlet and his pronouncements reveal the corruption in Denmark. He turns the image of the king and queen’s love-making into one of lusty sleaze when he pictures them:
�In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew’d in corruption, honeying and making love
Over a nasty sty.�
Hamlet who fully recognises the corruption of the court compares it to an abscess, threatening to destroy them,
�This is th’ impostume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies�.
It is fitting that Hamlet should kill Claudius, the cause of the corruption, at the end of the play. Whilst Claudius’s personal immorality infects the Royal Court like a disease and destabilises the nation, Hamlet’s noble actions provide hope for Denmark. Even though he is dying, his final moments are preoccupied with his country’s welfare. He begs Horatio to stay alive to �To tell my story� and he gives Fortinbras his �dying voice�. One has hope for the nation because the main figures of corruption are gone.
As I have shown above, Shakespeare employed a variety of techniques to convey a world of corruption in the play ‘Hamlet’. He is a master craftsman who vividly portrayed an exciting but terrifying world.