Imagery in Hamlet
By Ms. Bokpe
Imagery of disease, poison and
decay
 Help
us understand the bitter
relationships that exist and Hamlet’s
own cynicism
 To deepen our understanding of the
emotions experienced
Imagery of decay
 Helps
us understand Hamlet’s
depression in the lst soliloquy about
suicide
 “O that this too sullied flesh would
melt,/Thaw, and resolve itself into a
dew,” (I,ii.131-132)
 Image of rotting flesh
 We feel his pain and desire for death
Images of decay and rot
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Most likely are present in Hamlet’s mind and
revealed in his language
“So, oft it chances in particular men,/That for
some vicious mole of nature in them,/…Carrying,
I say, the stamp of one defect…Doth all the noble
substance of a doubt/To his own scandal.
(I.iv.26-41)
He describes how human nature may be brought
to decay through a tiny birth-mark, just as from
one “dram of evil” a destructive effect may
spread over the whole organism.
THEME: corruption through a “dram of evil”
Imagery of decay
 Helps
us see the corruption of
Denmark
 “Something is rotten in the state of
Denmark” (I,iv,99)
Hamlet’s imagery
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“Shows us that whenever he thinks and
speaks, he is at the same time a visionary,
a seer, for whom the living things of the
world about him embody and symbolize
thought” (Clemen 227)
“A little month, or ere those shoes were
old/With which she follow’ed my poor
father’s body/Like Niobe, all tears”
(I.ii.149-150)—keen observations of
reality
What Hamlet’s use of imagery
reveals about him
 Prefers
to keep his language within
the scope of reality, within the
everyday world—gifted with keep
powers of observation
 “I
know not seems”
Hamlet’s use of imagery reveals

Educational background
– Metaphors taken from natural sciences
(emphasize his powers of observation)
– Classical antiquity (Greek mythology)

His many-sidedness
– Familiar with the theatre/acting
– With fine arts, falconry/hunting

The extraordinary range of his experience
– “courtier, soldier and scholar” (Ophelia’s
comment - III.i.163)
Imagary used to unmask others
Simile of fortune’s pipe – shows Rosie’s
and Guildie’s true intentions
 Unmask’s Rosie – calls him a “sponge”
“that soaks up the king’s countenance”
(IV.ii.11-20)So Hamlet sees through men
and things. He perceives what is false,
visualizing his recognition through
imagery.

The graveyard scene
 Yorick’s
skull
– – more than a lifeless object
– Hamlet is more deeply moved by the
reality and significance of these earthly
reamins
– “the noble dust of Alexander”
Imagery of poison
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The ghost’s description of his poisoning by
Claudius
“and in the porches of mine ears did pour/The
leperous distilment;whose effect/Holds such an
enmity with blood of man…Most lazar-like, with
vile and loathsome crust,/All my smooth body”
(I.v.47-96)
The healthy organism is destroyed from within
Corruption of land and people in Denmark
The poisoning of all the major characters in the
last act