Neil Bowen on
Corruption & health
Language of the play permeated with images of illness, disease - metaphors for moral and political corruption.
From the start, the guards, both Francisco ‘I am sick at heart’ and Marcellus, ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’, to the end, the gravediggers’ talk of poxy rotten bodies and across different strata of society from the King to paupers.
Corruption spreads throughout the society and political body of Elsinore. From where does it originate? For Hamlet it spreads from the act of regicide, but the play suggests the corruption may have preceded the murder of Old Hamlet.
Different types of corruption spread into all key relationships e.g. - Claudius & Gertrude [sexual, incest]; Hamlet & Rosencrantz & Guildenstern [betrayal of friendship]; Hamlet & Ophelia [betrayal of love]; Claudius & Laertes [corruption of heroism] as well as within individual characters - the ghost, Hamlet & Ophelia’s madnesses - i.e. minds corrupted.
Some critics argue that all the language and communication in the play has also become corrupted.
However, most of the characters don’t appear to know the cause of this ubiquitous corruption. ‘Something’s rotten’. Or they are too frightened to identify the cause. Or they have benefited from the corruption - Claudius & Polonius, perhaps Gertrude.
Hamlet learns that Claudius is the apparent source of the corruption via the ghost. The corruption stems not only from the murder, but also the manner of the murder - poison = Elsinore is ill because it has been poisoned. In Hamlet’s mind his mother’s marriage is another source of corruption.
Therefore to purge Denmark Hamlet has to kill Claudius.
However, this simple diagnosis is complicated by Shakespeare’s characterisation and by critical responses.
The idea of the hamartia suggests a form of sickness within the hero’s mind of action, e.g. Hamlet’s melancholy. [Though this may be considered a symptom of a deeper sickness within the world of Elsinore.]
The ghost can be seen as embodiment of illness; it is not a trustworthy source of information and is even seen by some critics, such as Tony Tanner and Hippolyte Taine, as pouring poisonous words into Hamlet’s ear.
For the most extreme critics, such as Wilson Knight, Hamlet is not a restorative force at all, but himself a corrupter of health. Ophelia’s madness, a form of mental corruption, is at least, in part, caused by Hamlet’s actions.
Revenge set up as a cure for corruption, like a form of radical surgery to the body politic, but the play undercuts this simple solution. Revenge in the play is presented as problematic, to say the least.
Hamlet romantices his father, but the ghost tells us Old Hamlet died with his sins upon him, suggesting corruption predates Claudius’ usurpation.
At the end of the play it seems that the sword has triumphed over the poison. But Laertes’ sword is poisoned, Hamlet stabs Claudius, but also makes him drink poison too.
Unclear at the end of the play that Claudius’ death has indeed purged Elsinore of corruption and restorative justice been done. Depends on reading of Fortinbras.
For modern critics, the corruption/illness at the heart of Elsinore is not contained only within the characters of Claudius or Hamlet. Rather it is endemic within a society that is fundamentally unjust. Hence, just switching the principal players - Fortinbras for Claudius/ Hamlet/ Old Hamlet will not lead to health.