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Themes in Hamlet (Corruption/health/sickness (Political readings of Hamlet…
Themes in Hamlet
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Surveillance
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"the play's the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king" - uses the Mousetrap to observe the king's reaction
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Hamlet observes Claudius in prayer: "A villain kills my father and for that I, his sole son, do send that same villain to heaven" - though decides not to kill him
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In Gregory Doran's 2009 film version, there are numerous security cameras to emphasise this aspect of Denmark's corruption
Doubles/duplicity
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Claudius' duplicity: pretends to be sad about Hamlet's death but is actually happily reaping the rewards from it:
"to bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe"
Polonius has a very duplicitous nature: outwardly appears to be a bumbling fool - language is very circumlocutive and he often gets sidetracked/forgets what he is saying (By the mass I was about to say something! where did i leave?"
"Fortinbras, Laertes and Horatio might be suggested as candidates for the role of alter ego for Hamlet...each in his own way is an example of what Hamlet could be but is not: the active and unquestioning soldier, the man who is able to act directly , and the solid, 'normal' person" - Thomas Connolly 20th C.
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"Hamlet is not a single consistent character...he is half a dozen characters rolled into one" - George Bernard Shaw
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