Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive / Against thy mother aught; leave her to heaven, / And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, / To prick and sting her.
Act I, Scene 5
Context
The Ghost instructs Hamlet to pursue revenge against Claudius but to leave Gertrude's punishment to heaven and her own conscience, which will torment her.
Analysis
The command 'Taint not thy mind' is oddly fragile—the Ghost worries that revenge will corrupt Hamlet psychologically, even as he demands it, revealing a contradiction he does not resolve. The metaphor of 'thorns that in her bosom lodge' internalizes Gertrude's punishment, as if guilt were already growing inside her like a plant. This allows the Ghost to imagine her suffering without Hamlet having to act, but it also sets up an impossible double bind: how can Hamlet avoid tainting his mind while committing murder?
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that the Ghost's instructions are contradictory and set Hamlet up for failure—he is told to kill without becoming corrupted and to leave his mother alone while obsessing over her crime, which explains why Hamlet's 'madness' and paralysis are not character flaws but rational responses to an unworkable command.