Need essay help, Badly! Hamlet...?

Question

I need to write a 3 page paper on Hamlet..the question is:

"Early in the play, Marcellus says, 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.' Analyze what Marcellus means and the extent to which Hamlet is able to do something about the problems that plague Elsinore. Briefly determine what Marcellus means by 'rotten', in its various manifestations. Also, demonstrate the extent to which Hamlet does something about the problems Marcellus aludes to."

I also need to answer the questions:

1. What are the reasons for Elsinores 'unnatural state'?

2. What methods does Hamlet use to gain revenge?

3. What does the ghost means when he says 'Remember me'?

4. What obstacles does Hamlet face as he tries to remain dutiful to his father?

The reason why I need so much help is because I have written countless essays to which I have put much thought into, and because my English teacher is so biased, she doesn't agree with much of what I have to say.

Please, please help!

Answer 1

A line from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. An officer of the palace guard says this after the ghost of the dead king appears, walking over the palace walls.   1

‡ “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” is used to describe corruption or a situation in which something is wrong.

There's a reason he says "state of Denmark" rather than just Denmark: the fish is rotting from the head down—all is not well at the top of the political hierarchy.

PLOT SUMMARY The action of the play begins two months after the sudden death of the Danish king, who has been succeeded by his brother Claudius. Soon after the funeral, Claudius married Gertrude, the dead king’s widow. Hamlet, the dead king’s son, has returned to the court at Elsinore from his studies. The ghost of his father appears to tell him he was murdered by Claudius, and asks his son to avenge his death. Polonius, Claudius’s chief counsellor, forbids his daughter Ophelia to see Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two childhood friends of Hamlet’s, are summoned by Claudius and Gertrude to keep an eye on Hamlet. Ophelia, obeying her father’s instructions, rejects Hamlet’s advances in an arranged meeting while Polonius and Claudius eavesdrop. A company of actors arrives at Elsinore. Hamlet asks them to perform a play called The Murder of Gonzago, hoping that its plot, which bears some similarities to the circumstances of his father’s murder, will force Claudius to reveal his guilt. After the play, which Claudius interrupts, Hamlet is summoned to his mother’s chamber. He chastises her for her marriage to Claudius and accidentally kills Polonius, who is hiding behind a curtain. Claudius sends Hamlet to England, planning to have him murdered. Laertes, Polonius’s son, returns to Denmark from France demanding revenge for his father’s death. Claudius plots with Laertes to kill Hamlet in a fencing match. Ophelia goes mad, and Gertrude relates the story of her drowning. Hamlet, having escaped his captors, returns from England and witnesses Ophelia’s funeral. The fencing plot miscarries and Laertes is killed. Gertrude drinks from a poisoned cup intended for Hamlet and dies. Hamlet, wounded by Laertes’s poisoned sword, kills Claudius, then dies himself. Fortinbras of Norway enters and lays claim to the Danish throne.

PROBLEMS OF PLAGUE:

Three times the ghost of Denmark's dead king had stalked the battlements of Elsinore Castle. On the fourth night Oratio, Hamlet's friend, brought the young prince to see the specter of his father, two months dead. Since his father's untimely death, Hamlet had been grief-stricken and in an exceedingly melancholy frame of mind. The mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of his father had perplexed him; then too, his mother had married Claudius, the dead king's brother, much too hurriedly to suit Hamlet's sense of decency.

That night Hamlet saw his father's ghost and listened in horror to what it had to say. He learned that his father had not died from the sting of a serpent, as had been supposed, but that he had been murdered by his own brother, Claudius, the present king. The ghost added that Claudius was guilty not only of murder but also of incest and adultery.The ghost's disclosures should have left no doubt in Hamlet's mind that Claudius must be killed. But the introspective prince was not quite sure that the ghost was his father's spirit, for he feared it might have been a devil sent to torment him. Debating with himself the problem of whether or not to carry out the spirit's commands, Hamlet swore his friends, including Horatio, to secrecy concerning the appearance of the ghost, and in addition told them not to consider him made if from then on he were to act queerly.

The thought of deliberate murder was revolting to him, and he was constantly plagued by uncertainty as to whether the ghost were good or bad. When a troupe of actors visited Elsinore, Hamlet saw in them a chance to discover whether Claudius were guilty. He planned to have the players enact before the king and the court a scene like that which, according to the ghost, took place the day the old king died. By watching Claudius during the performance, Hamlet hoped to discover for himself signs of Claudius' guilt.

His plan worked. Claudius became so unnerved during the performance that he walked out before the end of the scene. Convinced by the king's actions that the ghost was right, Hamlet had no reason to delay in carrying out the wishes of his dead father. Even so, Hamlet failed to take advantage of his first real chance after the play to kill Claudius. He came upon the king in an attitude of prayer, and could have stabbed him in the back. Hamlet did not strike because he believed that the king would die in grace at his devotions.

The queen summoned Hamlet to her chamber to reprimend him for his insolence to Claudius. Hamlet, remembering what the ghost had told him, spoke to her so violently that she screamed for help. A noise behind a curtain followed her cries, and Hamlet, suspecting that Claudius was eavesdropping, plunged his sword through the curtain, killing old Polonius. Fearing an attack on his own life, the king hastily ordered Hamlet to England in company with Rosencrantz and Guildernstern, who carried a warrant for Hamlet's death. But the prince discovered the orders and altered them to that the bearers should be killed on their arrival in England. Hamlet then returned to Denmark.

Much had happened in that unhappy land during Hamlet's absence. Because Ophelia had been rejected by her former lover, she went mad and later drowned. Laertes, Polonius' hot-tempered son, returned from France and collected a band of malcontents to avenge the death of his father. He thought that Claudius had killed Polonius, but the king told him that Hamlet was the murderer and even persuaded Laertes to take part in a plot to murder the prince.

Claudius arranged for a duel between Hamlet and Laertes. To allay suspicion of foul play, the king placed bets on Hamlet, who was an expert swordsman. At the same time, he had poison placed on the top of Laertes' weapon and put a cup of poison within Hamlet's reach in the event that the prince became thirsty during the duel. Unfortunately, Gertrude, who knew nothing of the king's treachery, drank from the poisoned cup and died. During the contest, Hamlet was mortally wounded with the poisoned rapier, but the two contestants exchanged foils in a scuffle, and Laertes himself received a fatal wound. Before he died, Laertes was filled with remorse and told Hamlet that Claudius was responsible for the poisoned sword. Hesitation no longer, Hamlet seized his opportunity to act and fatally stabbed the king. Then the prince himself died. But the ghost was avenged.

The main setting is Elsinore Castle in eastern Denmark, on the Øresund strait separating the Danish island of Sjælland (Zealand) from the Swedish province of SkÃ¥ne and linking the Baltic Sea in the south to the Kattegat Strait in the north. Elsinore is a real town. Its Danish name is Helsingør. In Shakespeare’s time, Elsinore was an extremely important port that fattened its coffers by charging a toll for ship passage through the Øresund strait (which means “The Sound”). Modern Elsinore, or Helsingør, is directly west of a Swedish city with a similar name, Helsingborg (or Hälsingborg). Within the city limits of Elsinore is Kronborg Castle, said to be the model for the Elsinore Castle of Shakespeare’s play. Construction on the castle began in 1574, when Shakespeare was ten, and ended in 1585, when Shakespeare was twenty-one. It is believed that actors known to Shakespeare performed at Kronborg Castle. Other settings in Hamlet are a plain in Denmark, near Elsinore, and a churchyard near Elsinore. Offstage action in the play (referred to in dialogue) takes place on a ship bound for England from Denmark on which Hamlet replaces instructions to execute him (see the plot summary below) with instructions to execute his traitorous companions, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and on a pirate ship that returns him to Denmark.  

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[edit] Revenge and Hamlet's delay

Within Hamlet, the stories of five murdered father's sons are told: Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras, Pyrrhus, and Brutus. Each of them faces the question of revenge in a different way. For example, Laertes moves quickly to be "avenged most throughly of [his] father," while Fortinbras attacks Poland, rather than the guilty Denmark. Pyrrhus only stays his hand momentarily before avenging his father, Achilles, but Brutus never takes any action in his situation. Hamlet is a perfect balance in the midst of these stories, neither acting quickly nor being completely inactive.[49]

Hamlet struggles to turn his desire for revenge into action, and spends a large portion of the play waiting rather than doing. Scholars have proposed numerous theories as to why he waits so long to kill Claudius. Some say that Hamlet feels for his victim, fearing to strike because he believes that if he kills Claudius he will be no better than him. The story of Pyrrhus, told by one of the acting troupe, for example, shows Hamlet the darker side of revenge, something he does not wish for. Hamlet frequently admires those who are swift to act, such as Laertes, who comes to avenge his father's death, but at the same time fears them for their passion, intensity, and lack of logical thought.[50]

Hamlet's speech in act three, where he chooses not to kill Claudius in the midst of prayer, has taken a central spot in this debate. Scholars have wondered whether Hamlet is being totally honest in this scene, or whether he is rationalizing his inaction to himself. Critics of the Romantic era decided that Hamlet was merely a procrastinator, in order to avoid the belief that he tr