Hamlet (Key Themes - Corruption)

Question 1

‘Who’s there?’
First line of the play

Answer 1

• immediately, paranoia is conveyed through repeated questions = points to wider societal instability and (spiritual) tension of the setting - foreshadowing and interrogative

Question 2

‘Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature’
Act 1, Scene 2 in Hamlet’s 1st Soliloquy

Answer 2

• ‘rank’ and ‘gross’ are qualitative adjectives
• images of disease and decay
• psychoanalytic reading - Garden of Eden polluted by the treachery of the first mother

Question 3

‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’
Marcellus in Act 1, Scene 4

Answer 3

• something wrong not just within the royal family but in the country as a whole
• This line highlights the pervasive corruption in Denmark, symbolizing the moral decay caused by Claudius’s usurpation of the throne.

Question 4

‘the corrupted currents of this world’
Claudius in Scene 3, Act 3

Answer 4

• gutteral alliteration
• the world is full of corruption

Question 5

“O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!”
– Hamlet, Act II, Scene II

Answer 5

Hamlet laments his inaction in avenging his father’s murder, showing his frustration and the paralysis caused by overthinking.

Question 6

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.”
– Hamlet, Act III, Scene I

Answer 6

Hamlet reflects on how moral contemplation prevents decisive action, allowing corruption to thrive unchecked.

Question 7

“Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?”
– Hamlet, Act III, Scene II

Answer 7

Hamlet accuses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of trying to manipulate him on Claudius’s behalf, reflecting his awareness of their complicity.