Disease Imagery in Shakespeare's Hamlet Dina Rabie College

Recurring physiological manifestations of sin and madness as illness are crucial in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. They frame the state of Denmark as a sick body, with Hamlet chasing a virus, attempting to eradicate it before the body keels over. As the plot unfolds, the audience is plagued by the sense of impending death as the body gets more and more ill, instilling panic as it nears the end. By including the motif of disease imagery in Hamlet, Shakespeare maintains a foreboding tone and macabre atmosphere, conveying not only a corruption of the crown but a thorough degeneration of the greater body of Denmark.

At the start of the play, Hamlet mourns the sudden death of his father, Old Hamlet, the former King of Denmark. At the King’s court, sitting beside Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, is Claudius, the deceased King’s brother; the two have quickly wed after Old Hamlet’s death, leaving Hamlet feeling shell-shocked, revolted, and (as he later reveals in a short soliloquy) suspicious of “foul play” (I, 2, 278). The Ghost of Old Hamlet appears before him, motioning with some urgency that Hamlet must follow his lead (off-stage), which prompts a guard named Marcellus to say, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I, 4, 100). As the...