Hamlet
Prompt #19 · Hamlet
Prompt Type: Symbol/Motif
Throughout the play, poison enters through ears (King Hamlet's murder), is poured into cups (Gertrude's death), and coats sword blades (the final duel). Analyze how Shakespeare uses poison as a motif to represent the corruption that spreads through Denmark and the destructive nature of revenge. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole / With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, / And in the porches of my ears did pour / The leperous distilment,”
Act I, Scene 5
Argument
This quote establishes poison as the original instrument of corruption, with the Ghost describing how literal poison poured through the ear murdered King Hamlet—the physical act that initiates all subsequent moral decay and sets revenge in motion throughout Denmark.
Quote 2
“When in your motion you are hot and dry, / As make your bouts more violent to that end, / And that he calls for drink, I’ll have prepar’d him / A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping, / If he by chance escape your venom’d stuck, / Our purpose may hold there.”
Act IV, Scene 7
Argument
This quote shows poison's evolution into a dual weapon of revenge, as Claudius plans both a 'venom'd stuck' (poisoned sword) and a poisoned 'chalice,' demonstrating how the motif multiplies and spreads just as corruption itself proliferates through the court.
Quote 3
Act V, Scene 2
Argument
This quote completes poison's trajectory as Gertrude's death by the poisoned cup reveals how revenge's destructive nature consumes the innocent alongside the guilty, with her repeated cry 'the drink, the drink!' emphasizing poison as the final manifestation of Denmark's total corruption.
Quote 4
“O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; / It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,— / A brother’s murder!”
Act III, Scene 3
Argument
This quote uses the metaphor of poison's stench ('rank, it smells to heaven') to represent Claudius's moral corruption, connecting the physical poison that murdered King Hamlet to the spiritual poison of fratricide that now permeates Denmark's throne and demands revenge.
Quote 5
“’Tis now the very witching time of night, / When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out / Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood, / And do such bitter business as the day / Would quake to look on.”
Act III, Scene 2
Argument
This quote extends poison's metaphorical reach through the image of hell breathing 'contagion to this world,' showing how the motif evolves from literal poison to atmospheric corruption that infects Hamlet himself, transforming him into someone who could 'drink hot blood' in pursuit of revenge.