Why Does Shakespeare Use The Word Poison In Hamlet

Maggie Kaprosch

Professor Sheerin

ENGL 3336.01

February 3, 2016

Word Study In Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses language to develop his characters, their actions, and themes central to the play. One word that recurred throughout the play and seemed significant to the overall theme of the play (which I deemed to be death/mortality, corruption, and revenge) was “poison.” Poison, both in a literal and metaphorical sense, affected the lives and actions of several characters in Hamlet. Hamlet was poisoned by his quest for vengeance on behalf of the ghost of his father; Claudius was poisoned by his greed and his pursuit of power; Ophelia’s relationship with Hamlet was poisoned by her miscommunication with him (about her father’s meddling). Ultimately,

After the death of King Hamlet, when the Ghost first makes an appearance on the castle walls, Marcellus, an officer of the Palace Guard remarks “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (1.4.67). This sentence references the moral and political corruption King Claudius has brought upon Denmark through his mismanagement of politics. He has poisoned the country and the minds of the people of Denmark with his greed and deceit, and the country is rotting (much like a body rots and shuts down after it’s been

This can be seen in the third act of the play when Hamlet hires an acting troupe to essentially stage a play based on his father’s death and the betrayal of his uncle and mother, who married shortly after his father’s death. This is a scene where I would argue were the line between playing mad and actually being mad is very fine. The play is an act of Hamlet’s madness, of his poisoned mind, but Hamlet defends himself saying the act is a comedy and is all in jest, “No, no! They do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' th' world.” (3.2.213-214.)

Shakespeare’s imagery of poisoning one’s ear was an important motif of the play, and could be seen in the death of King Hamlet, who was literally poisoned in the ear, but also of Claudius, who used manipulative language to persuade and poison the minds of those around him, including Gertrude, Polonius, and Laertes. He spoke deceitfully into the ears of those he manipulated in order to further his agenda of greed and power. I would also argue that the Ghost’s interactions with Hamlet, and request of Hamlet to enact revenge among Claudius, was a symbol of the Ghost poisoning Hamlet’s ears with a thirst for