At the end of act one, scene four, Marcellus watches Hamlet follow the ghost of his father off-stage and then famously exclaims, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." Indeed, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is filled with imagery of poison, sickness and rot.

As the central hero of this play, young Hamlet makes (or fails to make) most of the crucial decisions in the play; nevertheless, it is difficult to determine his precise relationship to this illness that afflicts the Danish kingdom. In an essay in which you support an argumentative thesis with specific textual evidence, assert the extent to which you believe Hamlet either acts to eliminate that "[s]omething [which is] is rotten in the state of Denmark," or acts to instigate or prolong that sickness. Make sure that your essay both defines the play's most malignant force and explains Hamlet's relationship to that malignancy.

 

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