Corruption In Hamlet Essay

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Corruption is a disease that escapes not a soul. It deviously slithers its way into the lives of all humans. It slyly manifests itself under each step they take. It even taints the very air they breathe. If left unbridled, it can corrode the very fabric of society and disintegrate a nation in its entirety. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, corruption plagues the state of Denmark and its citizens after King Claudius usurps the throne by murdering his brother, King Hamlet, and marrying his sister-in-law, Queen Gertrude. The nation is thus thrust into a state of disarray and hysteria, one that is only righted by the deaths of the corrupt. Truly, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, corruption at the heart of the kingdom leads to the nation’s demise. Indeed,…show more content…
iii. 84), and yet, he commands Ophelia to simply obey him. In fact, Polonius repeatedly uses Ophelia as a tool in a bid to gain more power, in a bid to elevate his own status. His rampant immorality spreads through the kingdom and drives his children to further corruption: madness and revenge. When Prince Hamlet kills Polonius, albeit in mistake, a “certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him” (IV. Iii. 23-24); in essence, the decay that plagues Polonius’s body directly mirrors the deterioration of the previously revered state of Denmark. Indeed, the citizens of the kingdom believe that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I. v. 100) and rightfully so, for corruption at the centre of the realm is deteriorating the land in its entirety. Eventually, the court is brimming with such disease and decay that the only manner in which Denmark can return to its state of health is through the deaths of all those who are corrupt. Ultimately, this bloodletting rights the natural order of the kingdom and returns it to the bounds of the status quo. However, humanity must take heed, for corruption is a festering plague that will inexorably strike again and again until the whole of the human race succumbs

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