Your answer regarding physical corruption as portrayed in
Shakespeare's Hamlet is quite good. Your example regarding
Yorick's skull is particularly appropriate since it is a physical manisfestation of the
effects of death. Until this point, Hamlet has been mostly concerned about the
afterlife and the spiritual effects of death, concerns that are expressed most notably
in his "To be or not to be" soliloquy, as you noted. Further, as you noted, Hamlet's
musings about Yorick portray death as the great equalizer, that even Alexander the
Great's body in its decay can wind up as a plug for a beer
barrel.
In this scene, Hamlet develops more thoroughly the
ideas that he touched upon in Act 4, scene 3 when he described the way a "king may go a
progress through the guts of a beggar." After killing Polonius, Hamlet was interrogated
by Claudius. Hamlet's replies show another aspect of physical decay and corruption when
he glibly mentioned the smell of Polonius' dead body and the fact that worms will soon
be eating his body.
Another way to approach your topic of
physical corruption is to examine the fates of the characters who die in the final act
of the play. The amount of poison each receives seems to be a physical representation
of the inner corruption. For instance, Claudius receives a double dose of poison, from
the cup and from the sword. Clearly he is the most corrupt of all the
characters.
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