The Symbols Of Prison In William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Although it still serves its purpose, prison is not what it used to be. When the main character of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet declares that “Denmark’s a prison,” it means much more than just a cell with clean, painted walls and a personal bunk (pg 146, Appendix 5). Today’s penal systems have drastically transformed since the sixteenth century grim forms of punishment and has become a moderate discipline in comparison. What used to be the common practices of public embarrassment, torture, and brutal killings would now be considered a horrendous act against a person’s humanity. In the sixteenth century, prison was not a sentence, it was instead a place to hold criminals until further punishment. However much time a prisoner would have in their grimy, dark cell was spent fretting about what events would soon transpire, especially because the most probable outcome was death. Their future …show more content…
The royal castle of Denmark is a building full of murderers and lunatics, so there is nothing better to describe it as than a prison. Life may appear just fine on the outside, but underneath it is besmirched. It may seem like some people may be able to avoid the cruelty of life and the injustice in the world, but Hamlet goes back to the metaphor of prison and says “who shall scape whipping?” (2.2.453) The world is figurative penitentiary, and all of humanity are prisoners. A play where almost every character dies at the end will usually have a dismal theme as such, especially when the playwright had just had a son who died as well. Different prisoners may get different sufferings, but all people will eventually pay the ultimate price of death. Humans are locked up in a dingy cell, the earth, and they have no control over their fate. Everyone is waiting to see what type of punishment they will