A properly organized, working government acting as a mask for the corrupt underbelly – behind this lays the true rot of Denmark. In the state of Denmark much is wrong. The wrongness in the state is represented throughout the play in a variety of ways. One of the most incursive thematic displays of rottenness comes in the contrast between appearances and actual intentions, imagery indicating disease and corruption lurking beneath the surface. In this murky anxiety, the corruptions of the court are revealed. A disease has taken hold of the nation as a result of Claudius’ great crime, spreading down to the very core of the state, represented by its ruler. Corruption becomes the disease that purges Denmark of these persons, a direct resultant of their corrupted actions being their deaths.
This imagery of disease assails the audience from the very first scene, before any of the familiar characters enter the stage. Francisco, a guard states “I am sick at heart” (Hamlet, I.i.6). Bernardo questions him, asking of his watch, yet no direct answer is given. Overlooking this omission is easy as the mention of the ghost approaches, yet it helps in laying the frame work for the manner in which the anxious dread that permeates the play unfolds.
The play unfolds from a single act, King Hamlet’s murder. However the tragedy of the play’s conclusion involves much more. The catalyst of the events that we witness in the text itself is the revelation of the act by King Hamlet’s ghost to Hamlet. King Hamlet was a strong ruler, one who held his nation intact, having a loving relationship with Gertrude. Denmark was healthy under his rule. Claudius’ very biblical act of fratricide, a reference that appears more than once, its guilt evident in his attempt at repentance:
Oh my offence is rank! It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not. (III.iii.36-40)
A metaphorical first sin is committed, that which will cast Denmark out of its Eden-like state, leading to Marcellus’ remark that “something is rotten in Denmark” (I.iv.68), a statement that encompasses much more than he intends it to. In fact King Hamlet himself was very much physically corrupted as he describes when speaking of his murder to Hamlet:
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole
With juice of cursed hebona in a vial,
And in the porches of my ears did pour
The leperous distilment . . .
. . . 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 (I.v.61-73)
His body was quite literally destroyed in the act of murder, a powerful image, one that shadows the parallel effects of Claudius’ actions on the state of Denmark itself.
With King Hamlet dead, the decay of the morality of the state begins as well. It spreads from Claudius out to Gertrude, resulting in the marriage that Hamlet takes such offense in. The first time we see Hamlet is the announcement of the King and Queen and one of his first statements is the first of his many double-entendres jibing at the corruption he witnesses. Even before his knowledge of Claudius’ crime, the union between his mother and his uncle is loathsome to him. Claudius is “A little more than kin and less than kind” (I.ii.65) in his eyes, the marriage is little more than incest, a morally reprehensible act, especially in the highest marriage in the land.
The disease that has facilitated the murder of King Hamlet and the incestuous marriage of Gertrude to Claudius limits itself not only to Claudius and his direct actions though. The cause and effect relationship of the disease spreads quickly throughout the characters. Polonius, already a corrupted man, one of measurably less depth and subtlety than Claudius, works as the physical pronouncement of corruption in Elsinore. His actions, all attempts at sly and sneaky manipulation, cannot be covered up by his long winded speeches. He openly dissuades his daughter’s interaction with Hamlet, is dominating over the actions of Laertes, and plays at espionage twice within the play, the second time leading to his death. Polonius, rather than the secretive cerebral corruption of the court’s other members, is a very obvious, physical example of the disease. His presence thus acts as a foil to that more complex corruption, contrasting with its subtleties, and ultimately, in Polonius’ death signaling the consequences of behaving in such a manner.
Yet more aspects of corruption evolve in this play though, beyond those of Claudius’ heinous crimes, and Polonius’ simplistic manipulations. Hamlet himself is corrupted by his very purpose. In Hamlet, a decent caring man is presented, dark and brooding over his father’s death. The confluence of events creates a situation in which King Hamlet’s ghost forces Hamlet into a situation that he is unable to make a decision in. And thus he delays, stewing in his indecision, letting the corruption of the ghost with his vengeful call to action, sink in. It is in this indecision that a portion of Hamlet’s madness may hold weight.
Hamlet puts on his mask of madness at an early point, hiding from the watchful eyes of his murderous uncle. In this state, he thinks largely on the purpose of his own life, and the lacking the ability to make a decision contemplates ending his own life. Suicide itself is one of the greatest mortal sins, such that the very act of contemplating it, especially in the 5th soliloquy wherein he makes no mention of religion is a sign of a deep corruption of his soul. It was once said that “He who wears a mask cannot see within himself.”[1] This statement rings true for many of the characters in this play, but most especially Hamlet. His constant ruminations on the vileness of what has happened as well as the internal dilemmas regarding the taking of not only Claudius’ but his own life are signs of a man that has no grasp on who he truly is. Rather then announcing his purpose, he spends his time trying to discover that purpose, and his mind is no better for it. When he speaks to Rosencrantz in Act III he states he cannot “Make you a wholesome answer; my wit’s diseased” (III.ii.294).Thus he is corrupted, his wit diseased and unable to bear the burden of answering the questions he puts to himself.
When Hamlet is finally unable to bear his burden any longer, he cracks. The disease in his mind makes him short and in that shortness he strikes, killing Polonius, a murder, drawing immediate attention to Hamlet’s similarities to his uncle. From this point, the deaths of eight more characters ensue, wiping the slate clean of the corruption that stole Denmark. The importance of this lays not in the characters’ death, but the manner in which Hamlet retains his stole of the virtuous prince. Though tarnished by the death he has caused, it somehow remains, especially in his ‘soldier’s burial’, that he is a respected man who died honorably and who’s legacy, assigning Fortinbras the throne, will live on. Hamlet’s murder of Polonius differs from the sin of Claudius because of two things. Foremost, Polonius has not been established as a very sentimental character. He has manipulated and spied on Hamlet throughout the play, already quite corrupted. The second reason is that Hamlet’s mind already bears the corruption of Claudius’ crimes. Therefore, Claudius’ crime is that of an original sin in the context of this play. As the catalyst for this mess, his actions leave Hamlet to react and fight his way through his internal strif. When Horatio announces Hamlet’s death, no one doubts his nobility. “Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!” (Act V.ii.302-3). However, despite his retained nobility and sympathetic portrayal, Hamlet remains a victim of the disease of corruption, and thus must die in accordance with the play’s finale.
A stagnant disease, with no cure, that inevitably leads to death: corruption. Thus is each of the characters in Hamlet infected, led astray of their sense of morality and loyalty and ultimately finding death as their penance. The seed of the disease sprouted in the biblical misdeed of Claudius, murdering his brother. It spread in his incestuous union to Hamlet’s mother Gertrude, and infected even the noble Hamlet upon taking up the cause of his father’s ghost and the necessary vengeance. The survival and success of both Horatio and Fortinbras, both free of this disease, help to highlight how the infection of the disease known as corruption is incurable and thus must end in death.
[1] This quote was credited as having an unknown source.
