Motif Of Corruption In Hamlet

Motif essay Corruption is the moral perversion of one’s integrity, honesty, and character. It is a very gruesome, acrid, and horrifying thing in society. This similarly represents such thing as a dead animal that has been basking out in the sun for several days while it’s rotting corpse is covered in insects. Corruption spreads from the very bottom of society to the very top; it is prominent everywhere on earth. In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, corruption in the state of Denmark is portrayed by using the effect of the disease, rot, and decay as a motif. Hamlet’s father has just died, he is lost emotionally, and wishes to die. His mother quickly marries his father’s brother Cladius as he is the new King. Hamlet is extremely angry and explains, “ ‘Fie on’t! Ah fie! ‘Tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things …show more content…
A innocent Hamlet’s life turns to an unweeded garden full of disease and decay, as his father corrupts his mother into an incestious marraige. The looming ghost of King Hamlet represents the rotten and disease ridden nature of leaders in Denmark, along with a sense of impending misfortune. Hamlet’s use of a decaying corpse of a dog is warning Polonius about keeping Ophelia safe from his corrupt kingdom as he seeks revenge for his father’s death. The great demands from Hamlet to Gertrude to realize that he is not crazy and that she is in a disgusting and rotten relationship, shows how powerful corruption is and how devastating its widespread effect is on Denmark. Lastly the irony of Cladius seeing Hamlet as a disease trying to attack him, gives a representation of how the mind is lost through corruption. These examples of the motif of decay, rot, and disease, greatly show the chain reaction of corruption spreading across Denmark as a result of Cladius killing his dear brother. Corruption is everywhere we look and is