Minor Characters in Hamlet Essay

In the very beginning of the play a minor character make an incidental comment which pins together all its aspects: Fransisco the guard says, I am sick at heart. The adjective that Fransisco uses to describe him self sick conveys to us a sense of illness, disease, decaying at the very heart of things, which spreads throughout the play, and throughout Denmark.

This essay is going to discuss the depth of meaning in Marcullus point that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.

It will look at the aspects of decay cause dis-ease in Denmark.

A just king who was loved by his people is murdered by his brother, the seed of the disease sprouts in the biblical misdeed of Claudius, murdering his brother. Such an incident, such an injustice, starts a malignant disease, with no cure, that inevitably leads to death its is name: Corruption.

Moreover, the new king doesnt just murder his brother, but also marries his wife. A marriage that take place immediately after the death of the old king. This incestuous relationship is past of the spreading corruption.

This sickness affects the royal couples relationship with the young prince Hamlet.

The prince of Denmark is horrified by the incestuous royal couple, he no longer trusts his mother due to her marriage. In fact, he is left suspicious of all women.

The disease in Hamlet mind makes him short tempered, and in that shortness he strikes killing Polonius, a murder drawing immediate attention to having infected by the disease of his uncle.

The evidence of Claudius court also being infected by in the character of Polonius.

Polonius is a courtier in the court of Denmark, he is a corrupt man, one of measurably less depth ans subtlety than Claudius, works as the physical pronouncement of corruption in Elsinore. This action, all attempts at sly and sneaky manipulation, cannot be covered up by his long winded speeches.

He openly dissuades his daughters interaction with Hamlet, he is dominating over the actions of Lartus, and plays at espionage twice with in the play, the second time leading to his death.