The play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is a classical tragedy takes place in middle age Denmark. The protagonist, Hamlet suffers to carry out revenge for his father, who was killed by Hamlets uncle, Claudius. At the end of the play, he successes to kill Claudius, but right after that, tragically, he dies as well. During this play, numerous imageries were used in order to create ominous mood to whole play. Among those imageries, that of disease is one of the strongest, and it generates dark, and sinister mood. This imagery is significant to the whole play because not only it foreshadows the ending of this play, it also accounts for expressing negative feelings such as hostility and uneasiness, and allows readers to contrast main characters in the play.
The imagery of disease is used throughout the play, and the first one has special significance among them. Marcellus, a night-watch, with Horatio and Hamlet witnesses ghost that looks exactly like former king of Denmark. Hamlet runs after the ghost, to talk, and Marcellus says, Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, (1, IV, 92) after the event. Not only Marcellus uneasiness is expressed, but Shakespeare also successes to provide dark, ominous opening. If they simply meets the ghost, some readers might not understand the significance of the ghost in this play. By the use of erotten (1, IV, 92) image to describe the event, readers has clear image that something not right would happen later in this play. It is even more emphasized by use of the word eDenmark. By using the word, Claudius, who is king of Denmark, will be addressed stealthily. Hamlet shortly discovers Claudius assassination of Hamlets father. Thus, both as short term and as long term foreshadowing, disease image in introductory act is important.
Story proceed, and Hamlet, realizes about cruel conspiracy done by Claudius, determines to revenge Claudius for his killed father.
