Most cultures in the world rank people of a class in a certain order to form a society. This ranking or order of beings keeps the peace of the society. Whenever there is a break in the order of the society, there is chaos and turmoil. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, supernatural, corruption and disease imagery create the theme that the state of Denmark is in total chaos because the Elizabethan order of the universe has been broken. His brother, now King Claudius, has murdered King Hamlet and he has married his sister-in-law Gertrude very quickly after King Hamlet’s death. Prince Hamlet is very upset because of his father’s death and his mother’s quick remarrying. His love for Ophelia is unrequited. His father appears to him in the form of a ghost and tells him that Claudius murdered him and asks to avenge his murder. The state of Denmark is in a very volatile phase.

Supernatural element is any unnatural occurring and does not only refer to ghosts and spirits. Horatio after seeing the ghost himself says that when Julius Caesar died, the dead rose from their graves and roamed the Roman streets. He compares the dead to stars with fire and dews of blood. The

And even like the precurse of fierce events,

Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:

There has been a break in the Elizabethan order of the universe and thus the appearing of the ghost is a warning sign for Denmark. “Horatio likens it [the appearing of the ghost] to the prodigious events following the death of Caesar. A state is in jeopardy, and to the Elizabethans that…meant a sin-sick land is to be scourged.” (Jorgensen, 50). Horatio tells Hamlet of the appearing of his father’s ghost. Immediately Hamlet suspects that his father’s death was unnatural. He says to himself, “My father’s spirit in arms! all is not well; / I doubt some foul play: would the night were come!” [I . i . 253-254]. The murder of King Hamlet is unnatural and has set the Elizabethan order of the universe in disarray. The appearing of the spirit in a supernatural occurring and it is a sign that the spirit in turmoil. This is a warning sign of the impending chaos in Denmark. “…to the Elizabethans … he terrifies not just because he is ghost but also because…the theologians warned repeatedly that its symptoms were of sinful and sick land, ripe for sacking.” (Jorgensen, 50-51). In a soliloquy Hamlet says to himself that he cannot be sure if it was the spirit of his father or of a devil. He wants to be sure that the spirit was not lying to him because in his depressed state the spirit could take advantage of him. Hamlet doubtfully says:

Disease imagery furthermore adds to the theme of the break in the Elizabethan order of the universe and the chaos created due to it. King Claudius is talking to Cornelius and Voltimand saying that there has been chaos and disorder in the state of Denmark after the death of King Hamlet. The imagery of disease that is used is of a bone disjointed and out of frame. Comparing the state of Denmark to the disjointed bone he says, “ …by our late brother’s death/ our state to be disjoint and out of frame,” [I . ii . 19-20]. After the murder of King Hamlet there is disorder in the land, Claudius himself accepts this. The murder causes a break in the Elizabethan order of the universe, thus creating chaos. “ He sees the country and the people in it alike in terms of a sick body needing medicine or surgeon’s knife.” (Spurgeon, 316). Hamlets in his confrontation with his mother says that she has no virtue and she should take off the rose (which is a symbol of perfectio

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