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Imagery of Disease in HamletIn Hamlet Shakespeare weaves the dominant motif of disease into every scene to illustrate the corrupt state of Denmark and Hamlet's all-consuming pessimism. Images of ulcers, pleurisy, full body pustules, apoplexy, and madness parallel the sins of drunkenness, espionage, war, adultery, and murder, to reinforce the central idea that Denmark is dying. To Hamlet the very air he breathes is "a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours." Hamlet himself is a victim of a deep melancholy that results in fits of mania, and, until very late in the drama, he rots with a diseased will, unable to take the necessary action to revenge his father and save his country.The following is a collection of passages in which we find such imagery. Please click on the scene for explanatory notes on each quotation. ____ Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes: The canker galls the infants of the spring, Too oft before their buttons be disclosed. (1.2.38-40) Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. (1.4.90) So, oft it chances in particular men, That for some vicious mole of nature in them, As, in their birth--wherein they are not guilty, Since nature cannot choose his origin-- By the o'ergrowth of some complexion, Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason. (1.4.24-29) And curd, like eager droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine; And a most instant tetter bark'd about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body. (1.5.69-73) For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion. (2.2.189) the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. (2.2.290-294) But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain! (2.2.550-552) Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: but, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command. (2.3.314-315) And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought. (3.1.84-85) My mother stays: This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. (3.3.98-99) Such an act That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love And sets a blister there. (3.4.40-44) Look you now, what follows: Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear, Blasting his wholesome brother. (3.4.63-55) Sense, sure, you have, Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense Is apoplex'd. (3.4.73-75) Do it, England; For like the hectic in my blood he rages, And thou must cure me. (4.3.64-66) Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end. (4.3.20-25) To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss. (4.5.17-18) Her brother is in secret come from France; Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds, And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent speeches of his father's death. (4.5.73-76) Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats Will not debate the question of this straw: This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks, and shows no cause without Why the man dies. (4.4.25-29) For goodness, growing to a plurisy, Dies in his own too much. (4.7.117-118) But, to the quick o' the ulcer:-- Hamlet comes back. (4.7.124-125) I' faith, if he be not rotten before he die--as we have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce hold the laying in--he will last you some eight year or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year. (5.1.153-156) and is't not to be damn'd, To let this canker of our nature come In further evil? (5.2.20-25) How to cite this article: ______________ More Resources  Daily Life in Shakespeare's London Life in Stratford (structures and guilds) Life in Stratford (trades, laws, furniture, hygiene) Stratford School Days: What Did Shakespeare Read? Games in Shakespeare's England [A-L] Games in Shakespeare's England [M-Z] An Elizabethan Christmas Clothing in Elizabethan England Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron Going to a Play in Elizabethan London Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama Publishing in Elizabethan England Shakespeare's Audience Religion in Shakespeare's England Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Day Entertainment in Elizabethan England London's First Public Playhouse Shakespeare Hits the Big Time
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In Secret Conference: The Meeting Between Claudius and Laertes O Jephthah - Toying with Polonius The Death of Polonius and its Impact on Hamlet's Character Blank Verse and Diction in Shakespeare's Hamlet Hamlet's Silence An Excuse for Doing Nothing: Hamlet's Delay Foul Deeds Will Rise: Hamlet and Divine Justice Defending Claudius - The Charges Against the King Shakespeare's Fools: The Grave-Diggers in Hamlet Hamlet's Humor: The Wit of Shakespeare's Prince of Denmark All About Yorick Hamlet's Melancholy: The Transformation of the Prince Hamlet's Antic Disposition: Is Hamlet's Madness Real? The Significance of the Ghost in Armor The Significance of Ophelia's Flowers Ophelia and Laertes Mistrusted Love: Ophelia and Polonius Divine Providence in Hamlet What is Tragic Irony? Seneca's Tragedies and the Elizabethan Drama Shakespeare's Sources for Hamlet Characteristics of Elizabethan Tragedy
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"The fourth theory is a celebrated one from the standpoint of historical controversy. It assumes that Hamlet, at least at times, is insane. Melancholia, hysteria, psychic epilepsy, neurasthenia, madness or whatever you will, has been presented in turn to explain Hamlet's procrastination. Nearly all proponents of the madness hypothesis admit, however, that Hamlet had lucid intervals. As a matter of fact, the only defense of this theory that can be made is that pathological research has never yet been able to draw a sharp line of demarcation between sanity and insanity. Ibsen has demonstrated this dramatically in Hedda Gabler. Not all insane people are confined in madhouses any more than all criminals are now behind prison walls. But what is a criminal?" Haven McClure. ©1999-2021 Shakespeare Online. All Rights Reserved.