Dark Images Of Corruption Depicted In Shakespeare's Hamlet
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The play of Hamlet is not a very happy-going play. There are a lot of dark images of poison and disease that are portrayed throughout the story, and following the corruption that surrounds events that are recent and to come to the castle. All of this corruption starts with the poison that Claudius had used to murder King Hamlet, this spreads like an illness throughout the country. Shakespeare portrays in words of sickness repeatedly during the play, which helps best to exemplify the sick condition of matters plaguing not just Denmark, but also the characters. Decay, madness, disease, rottenness, and corruption are the images that for the imagery of death, and this imagery is portrayed by the plot, expressed by the characters and contributes naturally throughout the whole play. Shakespeare immediately expresses the sense of apathy and cold in the opening scene. As the play opens in the cool, black night, Francisco and Barnado are high on top of the looming walls of Elsinore, keeping watch for the approaching revenge of enemy Fortinbras (I.1). Midnight strikes and Barnardo notes, faintly referring to the sentiment of Denmark,…show more content… To Ophelia, warning of her relationship with Hamlet, he says, "The canker galls the infants of spring, too oft before their buttons be closed" (I.3.39-40). The "canker" is a worm, while "gall" is to break the skin, "Infants of spring" is a metaphor for the young spring flowers, with their unopened "buttons", or buds. To Laertes, Ophelia is a young and innocent flower and the canker is her love of Hamlet, since he cannot marry her, he could only break her heart and leave her like the flower bud eaten by a worm. Worse is that she could become intimate with Hamlet, which would be ruining her reputation and the same worm that has hollowed her heart would have broken the surface, shaming her. The unwelcoming images of rotting and sickness are relatively clear in this