Rotten Illusions: The Symbolism of Poison

Hamlet Interpretation.

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” How it all began, the poisoning of King Hamlet. Now, obviously many other things are rotten in Denmark, but it is how they are all connected that holds true meaning. King Hamlet, the King of Denmark, was murdered by his power-lusting brother, Claudius. He was poisoned while asleep in the orchard during the afternoon, through the ear. It had spread throughout his body, in his veins churning the what was light blood into curdles. This starts it all, the insanity of Hamlet, the fall of the kingdom, and the rottenness that then becomes Denmark.  

“Haste me to know ’t, that I, with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge.” (Hamlet to The Ghost, Act I, Scene V.) Hamlet thought highly of his father, and when he heard of his passing, obviously, he was mournful. Unlike his mother. King Hamlet shows up as a ghost throughout the play which gives an overall eerie vibe. Now, this ghost is seen by multiple people in the play, if it were only Hamlet who sees the ghost, we would think him more insane than he already seems to be. But since Marcellus, Horatio, and Bernardo all witness the ghost, Hamlet’s insanity can be considered sane. Yet Gertrude (Hamlet’s Mother and ex-wife of King Hamlet) and others cannot see him, perhaps King Hamlet’s ghost can only be seen by those who stayed loyal to him.

As the play progresses, Hamlet allows the idea of avenging his father's murder eat him alive. The tragic flaw in his character is his inability to act; he can’t follow thru with his want to commit suicide and refuses to kill Claudius while he prays, stating that “Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.” (Hamlet, Act III, Scene III.) His “want” to kill his uncle (Claudius) leads him to kill Polonius when confronting his mother about her sinful and rotten love with Claudius. “A bloody deed? Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother.” (Hamlet to Gertrude, Act III, Scene IV.) Hamlet’s “madness” manifests from the people around him, that is if his madness is true. Hamlet could easily be faking insanity, and it was just all part of a clever plan. “"I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft." (Hamlet, Act III, Scene IV.)

King Hamlet’s death is easily a metaphor for the fall of the kingdom and corruption of the royal family. Claudius murdering his own brother is what “is rotten in the state of Denmark,” disloyalty in the kingdom. Shakespeare must have chosen poison and the murder weapon for a reason. The poison spreads throughout his body in his blood just like how the corruption of Denmark spreads in the “blood” of the state. How it clots his blood and starts from his ear to his feet, from top to bottom. How the poison starts within him, then killing him. From the inside out. The decay of the kingdom starts within itself, those in power being the roots of it all.

The symbolism of things being rotten, decaying, and corrupt are common within the first act because the key point of it started with royalty. Royalty being the overall state of Denmark, there is something rotten and brings everything down to ruins.