In act 1 scene 2, Hamlet uses the image of an unweeded garden to describe his world. Why does he see his world as an unweeded garden?In...

This is one of Shakespeare's most brilliant metaphors.
Shakespeare is expressing his own view of humanity through one of his characters. Hamlet
is saying that most of the people in the world are either rank or gross. There is a big
difference in those two words. An unweeded garden that grows to seed can be an
interesting object of study. In fact, it is a wonder that artists such as Monet and Van
Gogh did not paint unweeded gardens. The things that are "rank" in such gardens are the
kinds of plants that do not grow tall but choke the flower beds and encroach on the
walks, helping to create a picture of abandonment, failure and desolation. Lawns that
are not mowed will either become dead and brown or else, if they can get enough rain
water, will become thick and ragged-looking. The tangled individual plants will appear
to be fighting for a foothold on the soil and a place in the sun. This is how
Shakespeare perceived the majority of humanity--fighting one another to stay alive and
not being worth the effort. He expresses a poor opinion of people in many of his plays,
including King Lear, Macbeth,
Measure for Measure, and Timon of Athens.
Perhaps he thought of people as being weeds and neglected plants in a garden because
such plants give the impression of fighting for their lives--every man, and every weed,
for himself.

In addition to the vegetation that is rank,
there are some weeds that take advantage of the untended condition of the garden to grow
to their full height and even develop ugly flowers. Such tall weeds are usually
marvelously ugly and misshapen. Milkweeds are a good example of weeds that are "gross."
And Shakespeare's Hamlet is thinking that many humans who stand out above the masses are
remarkably ugly, or "gross." The best example of a gross human being in
Hamlet is King Claudius. He is a villain, a liar, a drunkard, and a
lecher, but he is a very interesting character. He stands out above the common herd of
men who are "rank." Claudius is one of the outstanding individuals who can be described
as "gross." Shakespeare's metaphors and similes are almost always simple, natural,
unpretentious, and strikingly appropriate.