Hamlet motif?

Question

Can anyone tell me any act, scene, and line # where the motif of poison occurs in Hamlet?

Answer 1

Poison

Poison plays an important role in the play. We first run into poison when we learn about the death of King Hamlet. He was killed by his brother, who poured poison in his ear. Then, Hamlet’s mom Gertrude is killed by a poisonous drink. Hamlet and Laertes are killed by the poisonous rapier. King Claudius also dies from the poisoned rapier.

Check these passages:

Act IV, scene iiii, line 9, line 66

scene v, line 75, ear: 90, 94

scene vi, line 22 (ear)

Answer 2

The motif of poison occurs first in Act I scene v, when King Hamlet's ghost talks to Hamlet about how Claudius pours the "juice of cursed hebona" in the "porches of my ears". Then in Act III scene iii around lines 225-270, Hamlet comments on the play that the players were putting on. "they do but jest, poison in jest..." and "... he poisons him i' th' garden for his estate..."

In Act IV scene vii, Claudius talks about venom- poisons the cup of wine or whatever that he will offer Hamlet to drink at the fencing tournament. In Act V scene ii, Gertrude and Laertes reveal that the drink is poisoned and the rapier is poisoned.

The significance of "ear" is that Claudius poisoned King Hamlet by pouring venom into his ears. Claudius' rhetoric also acts as poison; because Claudius is an excellent talker (a perfect politician type- packages lies to make them sound and look good), his lies are poison to people's ears. So Claudius basically not only poisons King Hamlet, but also everyone else in the Danish court by telling the people all the lies and corrupting Denmark's government.