APRIL 9 — In Hamlet, arguably Shakespeare’s most famous, if not greatest play; there is a scene with Hamlet’s friend, Horatio, visiting the royal castle, Elsinore. He has heard that the ghost of the recently murdered king, Hamlet’s father, has appeared to the guards on duty.
While he is there, the ghost appears, dressed in his battle armour. When the officers challenge it, it refuses to talk to them and leaves.
Horatio tells Hamlet about it and Hamlet goes out to the battlements to see for himself. The ghost appears again and beckons Hamlet, who follows it. The officers all tell him not to go but he insists and threatens them with violence if they try and stop him.
While he is away, one of the officers, Marcellus, commenting on what the ghost’s appearance may mean, observes, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
The line is one of Shakespeare’s most famous quotes. Commentators say it points to two basic things: the body politic which the word “state” alludes to; and a corroding, decaying, unhealthy condition the word “rotten” indicates.
Political corruption is a major theme in the play, as revealed in the actions of the characters but also in the imagery. Images of corruption – decay, rotting, disease – “proliferates” throughout the play. Images of ill health, with weeds overwhelming healthy plants, everything decaying and rotting, and with poison killing wholesome things, reflect the rottenness in the state of Denmark.
When one of the officers on guard duty, Francisco, says “I am sick at heart”, you know what he means by that.
H. Granville Barker, English actor, dramatist, critic and director noted for his productions of Shakespearean plays (1877-1946), once wrote:
“Where, before Hamlet, can we find such a ‘setting’ contrived as that for the first scene at the battlements?”
Distinguished Malaysian academic and Islamic scholar, Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Prof. Dr. Mohd. Kamal Hassan, who passed away on February 23, 2023, had not said that he was sick at heart. But he had used words like “most frustrating”, “very disgusting” and “appalling” at political corruption in the country.
About a year before his death, in conversation with Astro Awani’s Consider This he said:
“I realise I am not the only person. There have been many other intellectuals and intelligentsia Muslims, as well as non-Muslims, expressing their dismay with the corruption and the hypocrisy in politics.
“The phenomenon (of corruption) is so well-entrenched (that) it has become cancerous. And maybe it is at the terminal stage.”
It led to the distinguished scholar writing the book Corruption and Hypocrisy in Malay-Muslim Politics – The Urgency of Moral-Ethical Transformation (Emir Research, 2021) about the country’s moral trajectory and what might reverse its tragic decline.
It is a must-read.
Corruption is “fasad” in the Quran and is mentioned 50 times in 47 verses. So, here’s reflecting on Nuzul al-Quran: Beware – something is rotten in the state.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
