Theme: Corruption/ The Wasteland Flashcards
(12 cards)
How does Shakespeare represent the theme of corruption? (Briefly)
- Corruption as moral and political decay
- The nation as a diseased body/ Corruption as a contagion.
- Thematic critique of revenge (as a response to corruption)
- Ontological implications of corruption
New Historicism, Hamlet and Corruption
- Reflective of the anxieties regarding political legitmacy
- Moral legitimacy of rulers
How does Shakespeare represent the theme of corruption?
1.Political corruption/ Moral vacuity
2. The nation as a diseased body/ Corruption as a contagion: Hamlet becomes embroiled in the corruption he seeks to eradicate.
3. Thematic critique of revenge (as a response to corruption)
4. Ontological implications of corruption: corrupting influence of power not only distort the social order but also challenge the essence of identity and purpose
Lawerence- Corruption
A sense of corruption in the flesh makes Hamlet frenzied, for he will never admit that it is his own flesh
Kitto- Corruption
- Evil in Hamlet as a ‘contagion’, from Claudius to Laertes and from Gertrude to Hamlet.
Alexander- Corruption
- The question remains, how does one deal with such a man (Claudius), without becoming like him’
Jan Kott- Corruption
- The play mediates on the inevitable decay of all human institutions and values.
- Suggesting corruption is pervasive on a broader existential level.
Shakespeare- revenge
- Commentary on the fragility of political systems
- Ways personal corruption can lead to national ruin.
Corruption as
Corruption as moral and political decay ?
‘A murder most foul, strange and unnatural’
‘The serpent that did sting thy fathers life now wears his crown’
‘It hath the primal eldest
Corruption and the body politic?
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
Denmark is a prison
Corruption as a contagion
It’s an
