In Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet a dominant motif of disease and decay is woven throughout the play as a metaphor for the corrupt state of Denmark and the characters’ health, both psychological and physical. Hamlet himself is a victim of a distress, which results in manic depression and fits of insanity. Until late in the drama, Hamlet rots with a diseased will, as he is incapable of revitalizing Denmark and avenging his father’s death. In Richard Altick’s work, “Hamlet and the Odor of Mortality,” he states, “the play indeed may justly be said to be enveloped in an atmosphere of stench” (167). These Grotesque images of sickness, disease, and madness, parallel the sins of spying, incest, war, and murder and, in turn, reinforce the central
