Shakespeare's Hamlet uses imagery as a means to portray ideas that varies away from the normal representation of a thought. Shakespeare uses imagery as a vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas. Imagery permits the reader to reveal the author's intentions instead of hearing their descriptions. Learning the ideas makes this type of doubtfulness more powerful rather than being shown to the reader. The intensity of imagery used throughout the play is unmistakable.(Imagery)
             Three important functions are used to show the performance of imagery in Hamlet. First, the main characters of the play are individualized. Second, major themes are announced and elaborated. Finally, it places images in the audience's mind by establishing the atmosphere of the play and it keeps the basic mood of the tragedy. The clarity in which Shakespeare uses imagery helps to define these functions, emphasizing what is really important to humanity.(Imagery of Hamlet)
             A clear reoccurring pattern in the play's imagery is evident by the poisoned sword and cup. Hamlet's father being poisoned is a major symbol of the moral condition of Denmark. Just as Claudius poured the 'leporous distilment' into his sleeping brother's ear, which spread all throughout his body and destroyed the healthy living being, Claudius morally poisons Gertrude with the "witchcraft of his wit" and "with traitorous gifts." In order to please his evil master, Polonius yields the king's moral poison and will even give up his daughter Ophelia to Hamlet. As a result of moral poison, the morally unstable Laertes loses his life because he is unable to resist Claudius' moral poison. The symbols of the poisoned sword and cup represent the evil plot developed by the treacherous, which specifically spell out the end product of their development.(Mack 2) Unmistakably Claudius and Laertes developed their...