Lindsey Huynh

“Poison” – Hamlet

In the play, Shakespeare had described things in many different ways and meanings. He made us to think physically and mentally about the problem and the morality. Poison would make us imagine of toxic, even death, but according to the play, the meaning of poison was extreme.

The ugly truth for the kingdom of Denmark in the beginning of the play was the death of the king; he was killed by actual poison, but most people thought he was stung by a venomous snake. Jealousy had driven Claudius to kill his own brother in his sleep and married the queen so that he could become king. Every negative thing was begun from poisoned thoughts and actions. However, everything has their cause and effect, such as Hamlet was shock and angry with his mother because of her negative action of re-married to fast, leading him to distrust in women and treating them abusively.

As the story continued, poison or immorality had been one of the main subjects sank the characters in the play to revenge and murder. After the ghost told Hamlet to kill Claudius, he pretended to be mad and plotted to kill his uncle for revenge. He would not trust women enough to marry them and show his bitterness on Ophelia. Also, his resentment was so big that he hesitated to kill him when Claudius was praying after the play because he did not want Claudius to go to heaven.

Not only Hamlet was trapped in poison, but also people around him. People naturally tend to involve in bad things, which benefit them but do not know that brings them to trouble. Hamlet friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spied on Hamlet and they did not care about the outcome. They followed Claudius’ order to take Hamlet to England and kill him, but eventually, they were tricked by Hamlet and died, while Hamlet went back to Denmark and started his revenge.

Polonius and Laertes both did not like Hamlet and thought he would bring trouble to Ophelia, they stuffed in her head things are not good about Hamlet and made her not to do anything with Hamlet. Polonius also spied on Hamlet because he thought what he did was right and never thought of the result, so he was stabbed while hiding behind the curtain hearing the queen and Hamlet’s conversation.

Poison is also illustrated as sin, people sinned too much that they forgot to realize how bad the consequence is. Hamlet was sunk deeply in poison, to revenge for his dearest father, he despite everything even verbally abused women, tricked and killed his friends, pretended to be mad…Bitterness leads a person out of no way but tangles them in vengeance and also involve other people. After killing Polonius, Hamlet did not actually admit his guilt, but also, Ophelia had to suffer her father’s death, turned crazy and drowned to dead.