There are many prominent themes in the play Hamlet. One theme that played a very huge role was decay and corruption. In Hamlet, all characters are affected by decay and corruption in some sort of way. Some characters were introduced to us already overcome by corruption, some became corrupt over time. The character, King Claudius, is introduced to the audience as already being corrupt, as he killed his brother and married his sister-in-law for power. At first, the reader does not know that King Claudius is the one who killed King Hamlet; The reader only knows that he married Queen Gertrude immediately after his brother’s death (1.2 1-38). We find out later that King Claudius is actually the one who snuck into the king’s garden and poured
