ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Remember that Claudius killed King Hamlet by pouring poison into his ear. Shakespeare continually illustrates that words can function as poison in the ear as well. As the ghost says in Act I, scene v, Claudius has poisoned “the whole ear of Denmark” with his words (I.v.36).

Detailed explanation-2: -Thus, the ampoule containing the henbane that Claudius poured into King Hamlet’s ear could very well have contained sufficiently high enough amounts of scopolamine so as to fulfill his lethal mission.

Detailed explanation-3: -And last Friday, at the seventh annual clinicopathologic conference (CPC), William Valente from the University of Maryland School of Medicine confirmed that Claudius’ fourth wife, Agrippina, ultimately did him in with a dose of poisoned mushrooms. The motive? Clearing the way for her son Nero to take the throne.