In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Marcellus says in the beginning that “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark” (I, iv.90). Throughout the play, there are three instances that embody Marcellus’s quote. The first example is the incestuous marriage between King Claudius, King Hamlet’s brother and Hamlet’s uncle, and Queen Gertrude, King Hamlet’s wife and Hamlet’s mother. Hamlet is furious at his mother’s marriage since her husband died two months prior to the wedding. Hamlet clearly expresses his discontent when he angrily addresses his mother saying, “Such an act / That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, / Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose…” (III.iv.42-46). King Claudius’s usurpation of the throne, which rightfully
