The Theme in the Work
The theme first appears as image. In scene 2 of Act I, alone, Hamlet compares the world to an unweeded garden, overrun by what is rank and gross, and in scene 4 of Act I, Marcellus says what the sentinels feel: something is rotten in the state of Denmark. In scene 5 of Act I, the image gains a cause: the Ghost tells that Claudius poured poison into his ear, and that the official story of a serpent’s bite deceived Denmark.
In Act IV, rot becomes a method of government. In scene 3 of Act IV, Claudius explains that he cannot punish Hamlet by law because the people love him, and that the embarkation for England must look like a mature decision, while the letters to the English king demand the prince’s death. In scene 7 of Act IV, he leads Laertes to accept a duel with an anointed sword and a reserve cup, and mixes the fact that Hamlet killed Polonius with an account the play does not confirm: Hamlet’s envy of the fencer.
In scene 2 of Act V, the poison reaches the royal family. Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine, Laertes is wounded by his own blade and accuses the king, and Hamlet drives the blade into Claudius and makes him drink the cup.
The corruption in the play is less a vice of Claudius than the way the court works. Whoever governs by an appearance of normality, with measured speech, a Council at his side and an embarkation disguised as a decision, has poison only as an instrument of last resort, and what comes undone at the end is not one man but the way the court sustains itself. That is why the ending is the annexation of the kingdom, and not just the fall of the king.
Where It Appears
- scene 2 of Act I: Hamlet laments the haste of his mother’s marriage to Claudius and tells Horatio that the funeral baked meats served cold at the wedding tables.
- scene 4 of Act I: Marcellus, seeing Hamlet vanish behind the Ghost, remarks that something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
- scene 5 of Act I: The Ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius poured poison into his ear while he slept in the orchard and seduced Gertrude.
- scene 3 of Act IV: Claudius tells the councilors that he cannot punish Hamlet by law because the people love him, and admits alone that the letters to the English king demand the prince’s death.
- scene 7 of Act IV: Claudius proposes to Laertes a duel with Hamlet using an unguarded sword, Laertes adds the poison to the tip, and the king prepares a reserve poisoned cup.
- scene 2 of Act V: Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine, Laertes is wounded by his own blade and accuses the king, whom Hamlet kills, and Hamlet names Fortinbras as successor before dying.
Passages
What the sentinel perceives before everyone.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.(I.4)
Claudius’s method: the opinion of the people.
He’s lov’d of the distracted multitude, / Who like not in their judgement, but their eyes(IV.3)
The argument with which he leads Laertes.
That we would do, / We should do when we would; for this ‘would’ changes(IV.7)