If a garden becomes infested or the integrity of that garden declines it will lose its beauty. Hamlet described his life as a once beautiful garden. After his father's death and his mother's marriage he felt that his life was infested with weeds and the once beautiful flowers had died, leaving behind decay. There was nothing left of his once wonderful past. It was replaced with lies, deceit, heartache, incest, and later he would find murder. The moral decay had started to occur within his life and the decay would only grow more. In Act III as Hamlet was trying to get his mother to repent her sins, he used that metaphor again. "And do not spread the compost on the weeds to make them ranker." He was trying to make her stop the situation from getting worse. He told her to beg God for His forgiveness and to change her ways. If she did not stop the incestuous relationship, she was only making the garden of life more vile and adding more decay to what was already wrong with the morality of the royal family.
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 obviously against the idea of a man who would use his daughter as a possession, compares Polonius's morals to maggots in a dog's carcass. By saying "For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion--" Hamlet really meant that the lies and deceit were breeding the dwindling ethics that would ruin Polonius as an honest man. Hamlet used this as a warning to tell Polonius to act as a decent human and to not sell his daughter in order to make himself appear better.
Hamlet Hamlet is a young man who's father dies and his life is turned upside down. ... Hamlet is battling his conscience. ... Hamlet is extremely indecisive. ... Hamlet wants to kill his uncle because he killed hamlets father. ... Hamlet only trusts Horatio. ...
The old king Hamlet is murder by Claudius and therefore Hamlet must take his revenge. ... Hamlet begins to doubt the ghost. ... Hamlet is contradicts himself. ... Hamlet's next problem is that of morality. ... Hamlet's flaw of irresolution, the uncertainty on how to act or proceed, is shown when Hamlet sees a play and the passion the actors had, after Hamlet's third soliloquy, in Hamlet's fourth soliloquy, and in Hamlet's indecisive pursuit in avenging his father's death. ...
Hamlet In the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, Hamlet never loses his sanity, in his plan to feign madness. ... It is after this statement that Hamlet begins to act mad. ... Guildenstern asks Hamlet what he means by this and Hamlet professes he is "" . . . but mad north-north-west. ... Polonius believe he [Hamlet] was mad. ... In a conversation, Gertrude questions Hamlet's sanity. ...
Hamlet In the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, Hamlet never loses his sanity, in his plan to feign madness. ... It is after this statement that Hamlet begins to act mad. ... Guildenstern asks Hamlet what he means by this and Hamlet professes he is "" . . . but mad north-north-west. ... Polonius believe he [Hamlet] was mad. ... In a conversation, Gertrude questions Hamlet's sanity. ...
Laertes is a mirror to Hamlet. ... Laertes is decisive and Hamlet is not. ... Fortinbras acts as Hamlet's inspiration; he motivates Hamlet to go forward with his plan to kill Claudius, which in the end leads to Hamlet's downfall. ... Horatio is Hamlet's friend and solid rock on whom Hamlet can trust and depend. ... Horatio cared for Hamlet greatly, and so Hamlet cared greatly for Horatio. ...
KING Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? HAMLET At supper. ... If Claudius does not stand on one side of a titanic conflict, his betrayal of Hamlet's father and Marriage to Hamlet's mother, do ignite one: Hamlet's conflict with himself. ... In the end Hamlet dies along with most of the principle characters whether they were duplicities against Hamlet or not. ... By the end of the play Hamlet has thoroughly explored the question but like Hamlet, it remains an enigma. ...
Hamlet The study of Shakespeare's Hamlet has been one that is very extensive as well as enormous. ... A critic of Hamlet once said, "a man set out to read all the books about Hamlet would have time to read nothing else, not even Hamlet." ... "Hamlet is the tragedy of reflection. ... For where Hamlet saw that "the time is out of joint," Hamlet himself was "out of joint." ... (Mack. 64) Hamlet begins his questioning with the death of elder Hamlet. ...
Hamlet 1 Throughout Hamlet, Hamlet expresses his thoughts via several soliloquies. ... In this scene, Hamlet is being "set up" by Ophelia, Polonius, and Claudius. ... This is quite different than the "emotional Hamlet" seen in 1.2, or the "vengeful Hamlet" seen in 1.5. ... The three claim to be concerned for Hamlet's mental state of mind. This is ironic, because as the characters within the play see Hamlet mentally deteriorating, readers see Hamlet mentally developing. ...
Hamlet Tania Kozie-Slobodzian Hamlet is categorized as one of Shakespeare's tragedies. ... Horatio a friend of Hamlet tells Hamlet that he is afraid because he thinks he has seen a ghost who resembles the late King. ... The Ghost of Hamlet's father appears in front of Hamlet. The ghost is in fact Hamlet's late father. ... Now that Hamlet is said to be crazy, Polonius goes to the King and tells him about Hamlet's strange behavior concerning Ophelia. ...
