Deterioration of Denmark

### Hamlet

*First soliloquy*

%%“Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature.”%%

* Throughout play →  garden as a metaphor of the state of Denmark;
* the vivid + disgusting nature of the adjectives → deterioration of Denmark under the rule of Claudius in Hamelt’s eyes. 

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* __**Context**__ = Garden of Eden from the creation story → what was once abundant and viewed as a paradise is now lost and unretrievable due to the sins of others. 
* negative connotation of, “unweeded” →  Hamlet views the current state of Denmark under the rule of King Claudius as infested with undesirable plants
*  the chiefest being the new king himself. 
* Contrasts with Hamlet’s views of his father →  late Hamlet’s garden was a myriad akin to the Garden of Eden

### Hamlet

*First soliloquy*

%%“O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!”%%

* “resolve” refers to the archaic meaning of, ‘dissolve,’ and in this way, Hamlet wishes that his flesh would end the grossness or pain of its own humanity by simply melting away. 
* conveys Hamlet’s repulsion of Denmark’s society and as a result of Claudius

 hyperbolic verb, “melt” → that Hamlet is also despairing as a result of it.

### Hamlet

*Act 2 Scene 2*

%%Denmark's a prison%%

### Horatio

*Act 1 Scene 2*

%%“This bodes some strange eruption to our state”%%

### Claudius

*Act 1 Scene 2*

%%“mirth in funeral and dirge in marriage”%%

### Claudius

*Act 3 Scene 1*

%%Lawful espials%%

### Marcellus

*Act 1 Scene 4*

%%“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”%%

### AO5

*Critic*

Samuel Johnson → 18th century

“of feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause for he does nothing of which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity

### AO5

*Play*

Brannagh → 1990 Polonius and Ophelia

Polonius mocks Ophelia when questioning her about Hamlet