The main motif of the play is the rotting matter theme. In every act, and almost every scene there are mentions of death, decay, and morbid descriptions that may send shivers up one’s spine. The pictures are meant to set the mood as dark and dismal. After reading these lines one should not see Hamlet as a bright and cheery comedy, but rather a tragedy. The motif sets the understanding of other aspects of the play aside from the mood as well.

The lines in the play that describe the rotten views of Denmark and the decaying bodies could also be seen as a symbol. When Marcellus makes the comment “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” he was not talking about a foul smell that permeates from

Polonius used his own children as a concealment. On the outside he looked like a loving father giving his son fatherly advice when in reality it was just an excuse to insure that Laertes did not do anything to embarrass Polonius. He covered up his own decay of morals, his lying, his deceit, is lack of concern for his daughters well being by trying to act like a good father. He showed the letter that Hamlet had written to the King and Queen. On the outside it may have looked like he were trying to protect his daughter but actually he was simply trying to better his own name.

Denmark. He meant that the moral decay is great in the area. A king had just died, his wife had entered in what most would consider and incestuous marriage shortly after, and ghosts were appearing. Of course Marcellus was not the only one to notice this decay, nor was he the only one to express it through the same metaphors. Many other characters used the decaying matter to describe different aspects of the decaying morals of the people of Denmark.

Hamlet was often caught in the circle of people assuming his comments a cover-up simply because those who judge him were in fact using some form of concealing mistakes in their own lives. When Hamlet wrote a love letter to Ophelia he wrote the word “beautified”. His meaning when writing this was that of being beautiful. He intended it as a complement but because Polonius was putting on an act to make himself appear better he took the meaning to be a false beauty.

The decay of the garden and plants shows up in many scenes but the metaphor is not limited strictly to the decomposition of plant matter. There are also aspects of human or animal decomposition. Whenever this metaphor is used, it is usually directed toward a certain person or group of people’s moral decline as opposed to the moral decline in general. One example of this would be after Polonius had declared that he would “loose his daughter” on Hamlet to get to the root of the problem. Hamlet o

Some topics in this essay:
Horatio Marcellus, , III Hamlet, Denmark Hamlet, Polonius Hamlet, King Queen, Claudius Polonius, Gertrude Polonius, decaying morals, moral decay, moral decline, father’s death, Claudius Hamlet, decaying morals hamlet, decaying matter, mother’s marriage, hamlet described, reality excuse, throughout play, lies deceit,