“Hamlet is unable to function in the corrupt world created by Claudius.” Does Shakespeare suggest that
Hamlet is a pure character who sees through the corruption of the court in Denmark, or is he himself
equally corrupt? [45]
Mirroring the immoral and unbalanced courts of Elizabeth and James in the 16th century, corruption is integral to the
“vulgar and barbarous drama” (Voltaire) that is ‘Hamlet’. Spreading outwards from the central authority figure of
Claudius, due to his upheaval of the Great Chain of Being, corruption and decay perpetuates the court Elsinore,
controlling the fate of every character, and arguably consigning Hamlet to his eventual demise. This suffocating
atmosphere in Elsinore has tainted Hamlet impure, causing him to be as equally corrupt as Claudius, since “any action he
takes will be morally dubious” (Moriarity).
The theme of corruption and decay in ‘Hamlet’ is immediately established in Act 1 Scene 1 by Francisco, through the
short sharp words of “’tis bitter cold and I am sick at heart.” The corruption seems to have pervaded into the physical
body of Francisco, with “sick at heart” suggesting a melancholy or deep-rooted illness, which in Elizabethan England,
would have indicated a sickness in the soul itself. This highlights how the corruption in the court of Elsinore can
penetrate deeply into the psyche of those trapped within it (“O that this too too solid flesh would melt”). Furthermore,
the use of pathetic fallacy in this scene seems to symbolise the way in which the court of Elsinore is hostile to all things
pure and untainted, with only decay and disease being able to thrive, as shown in the phrase “’tis an unweeded garden
that grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.” Lilla Grindlay explores the corruption established
in Hamlet’s “unweeded garden” image to argue that that which is pure is “under threat from an untamed and unwieldy
wilderness that represents sexual, political and moral corruption.” This is certainly true: the metaphor of an “unweeded
garden” suggests something infested and overgrown, which Hamlet attributes to the “frailty” of “woman”. Furthermore,
in Act 1 Scene 5, the ghost uses a multitude of sensory language images to continue this metaphor, such as “garbage”
and “vile and loathsome crust”, which convey his anger at the ‘adulterous’ actions of Gertrude (“incestuous sheets”),
and her corruption by Claudius. Additionally, in the closet scene, Hamlet also uses graphic language to continue the
disease imagery and extended metaphor: “rank corruption, mining all within, infects unseen,” also showing how Hamlet
can recognise the corruption present in the court. His observation highlights how corruption is internal. It is integral to
the court of Elsinore and present within the bodies of its courtiers, as established by Francisco earlier in the play. The
verb “mining” also suggests a forceful and destructive action, perhaps mirroring how the physical action of King Hamlet’s
murder by Claudius so deeply corrupted the court of Elsinore. Hamlet also urges his mother to “not spread the compost
on the weeds to make them ranker,” clearly showing that Hamlet is able to see through the corruption of the court in
ways that the other characters cannot. Indeed, he constantly indicating the reason for the corruption as Gertrude’s
entry into “incestuous sheets.” The phrases “vile and loathsome crust” and “skin and film the ulcerous place” both seem
to mirror the symptoms of the Black Death, in which victims would suffer painful buboes, which, when drained, would
cover the body in a thick crust, causing fevers and scabbing. Elizabethan England suffered many outbreaks of this Plague,
and a new strain of the virus emerged in Europe in the 1500s, causing widespread disruption and a shift to the ‘natural’
social hierarchy, with the emergence of the bourgeoisie after the high death toll. In ‘Hamlet’, there is also widespread
social disruption, caused by Claudius’ “murder most foul” “strange and unnatural” of King Hamlet. In Branagh’s 1996
portrayal of ‘Hamlet’, this murder is carried out in an “orchard,” continuing the motif of an overgrown and “unweeded
garden” which breeds corruption and links Claudius to the Fall of Man as described in Genesis 3. Claudius is the “centre
of evil” (Moriarity) in Elsinore, through his upheaval of the Great Chain of Being and use of a spy network headed by
Polonius (which mirrors that of Francis Walsingham’s in the court of Elizabeth). The corruption of Elsinore is like that of
the Elizabethan and Jacobean courts. These courts were heavily surveilled by a close network of spies, and courtiers
would often pander to the monarch in order to gain favour. This is similar to the character of Polonius, who acts as a
kind of spy master, and often panders with the hope of furthering his position (“By th’mass, and ‘tis like a camel
indeed.”) As a result of this internal corruption, Denmark and Elsinore become a “prison”, trapping its courtiers inside a
system of surveillance, bribery and death.
