A level English Lit. "Hamlet" - essay plans (A* student)

Hamlet Essay Plans

1. How does Shakespeare explore corruption in Hamlet

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Point Claudius as the corrupt

leader is the most significant showing of corruption

in Hamlet.

Reference to the idea of a

corrupted fountain –

Duchess of Malfi - Webster

Corruption of Hamlet’s

mind

It is arguably the catalyst for creating the

Shakespearian tragedy

Corruption is explored

through the portrayal

of Denmark as decaying but also seen

through the apparition

of the ghost

Evidence Claudius upsets the statusquo of the court through

his fratricide and the destruction of the Divine

Right of Kings

Hamlet to Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern, “you would

play upon me”

Hamlet’s mind is often

associated with mental

instability

Gertrude calls him

“mad” when he sees

ghost - bedchamber

Ghost tells Hamlet to,

“taint not thy mind”

Entrance of the ghost

= foreboding atmosphere – “This bodes

some strange eruption

to our state”

“something is rotten

in the state of Denmark”

Analysis Clauduis’ corrupt actions at

the head of the fountain

has tainted the rest of the

court

Allowing espionage to

breed throughout

Hamlet’s “tainted

mind” could show the

significance of the burden of revenge or how

excess love = madness

This decaying state

represents the corrupt

Elizabethan court –

rotten etc shows its ineffectiveness

Context Espionage rife in Elizabethan society

Francis Walsingham –

idolised by many – foiling

plots – Babington etc

Revenge becoming outlawed – Elizabethan

court

Madness – Bedlam –

sick not treated well

Plague – theatres were

closed large problem/

Seneca

“Agamemnon” /

Laveter’s “of ghosts

and spirits”

Critic Richard Vardy

“In Denmark’s corrupt

world, spying is endemic”

A.C.Bradley

Shakespearean tragedy

focuses on the downfall

of a high-ranking character

Richard Vardy

“Denmark is rotten”

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