"Things rank and gross in nature": Poison as a Weapon and Metaphor in Hamlet.

The article focuses on the role of poison as both a weapon and a metaphor in Shakespeare's Hamlet . Topics include the contrast between visible physical violence and the hidden, psychological effects of poison, the historical and cultural anxieties surrounding secretive murder in Elizabethan England, and how Shakespeare's use of poison transforms the narrative from a heroic saga to a Renaissance tragedy steeped in moral corruption.