Double Entendre In Hamlet

How can individual conflicts be related to a societal conflict? Often in literature the use of double entendre adds to the depth and meaning of the work. William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is no different as his use of disease and macabre allows an audience to draw conclusions about Denmark and the corruption that is tearing the state apart. Shakespeare intertwines these minute details precariously throughout the progression of the play, which ultimately portrays a picture of the wrong doings that devastated the integrity of the state. These physical aspects, which harm characters in the play, lead to one questioning their uprightness finally leading to the unwinding of a doomed state.
Over the course of the play, the state of Denmark is ridiculed by corruption and immoral actions. From the beginning, this becomes evident when Hamlet returns home for his father’s funeral only to discover that his mother remarried his father’s brother Claudius. This new marriage enrages Hamlet as he finds the relationship to be incestuous. Adding …show more content…
“Hamlet remains haunted by this disease. Rotting, foulness, poison, contagion, corruption, melancholy, judgment, embodiment, inwardness, usurpation, alienation, and impersonation—the themes of Hamlet are the themes of leprosy.” Leprosy is a disease that was primarily eradicated by the time Shakespearian plays were being preformed, however the use of the disease and its traits lived on. The rotting city is no longer suffering from the physical disease but now an internal disease of greed and madness for power. The idea that Shakespeare intertwines into his play is parable to the effects of leprosy, the city will slowly rot away and ultimately turn to nothing but death. The death is inevitable and Shakespeare weaves this concept in to foreshadow a tragic ending to the