Hamlet Review: Themes, Motifs, and Symbols

Uncertainty/Contemplation
 Action postponed b/c Hamlet is too contemplative
 Understanding about ghosts: reliable or misleading?
 Proving Claudius is guilty of a crime that was not witnessed
 Status of the soul/moral ambiguity
 Hamlet’s madness
 The Afterlife
Complexity of Action vs. Inaction
 How is it possible to take reasonable, effective, purposeful action? (emotional, ethical, and psychological factors)
 Other characters think much less about “action” than Hamlet does, and less troubled about the possibility of acting effectively, but in some
sense they prove that Hamlet is right, because all of their actions miscarry (Claudius/Laertes)
The Mystery of Death
 Death is the cause and the consequence of revenge, relates to theme of revenge and justice
 Hamlet contemplates suicide: morally legitimate?
 Fear or afterlife causes complex moral considerations to interfere with the capacity for action

Denmark as a Diseased Body

 Explore anxiety and dread that surrounds the transfer of power from one ruler to the next
 Connections between the moral legitimacy of a ruler and the health of the nation
 Denmark described as a physical body made ill by the moral corruption of Claudius and Gertrude
 Ghost = supernatural omen indicating something is rotten in Denmark
 Rise to power of Fortinbras suggests that Denmark will be strengthened once again.

Incest and Incestuous Desire

 alluded to by Hamlet and the ghost about Gertrude and Claudius
 A subtle motif of incestuous desire can be found in the relationship of Laertes and Ophelia (speaks to his sister in suggestively sexual terms
and, at her funeral, leaps into her grave to hold her in his arms)
 Hamlet and Gertrude - fixation on Gertrude’s sex life with Claudius, general preoccupation with her

Misogyny
 Gertrude’s quick marriage forces Hamlet to become cynical about women
 Obsession with what he perceives to be a connection between female sexuality and moral corruption
 Important inhibiting factor in Hamlet’s relationships with Ophelia and Gertrude: he urges Ophelia to go to a nunnery rather than experience the
corruptions of sexuality and exclaims of Gertrude, “Frailty, thy name is woman” (I.ii.146)

Ears and Hearing

 Words used to communicate ideas, but can be used to distort the truth, manipulate others, and serve as tools in corrupt quests for power
 Claudius (shrewd politician) manipulates words to enhance his own power
 Sinister uses of words represented by images of ears and hearing
 Claudius’s murder of the king by pouring poison into his ear
 Hamlet’s claim to Horatio “I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb” (IV.vi.21)
 The ear poison is used by the ghost to symbolize the corrosive effect of Claudius’s dishonesty on the health of Denmark by declaring the story
that he was killed by a snake is a lie, he says that “the whole ear of Denmark” is “Rankly abused. . . .” (I.v.36–38)

Spying/Informants
 Corruption, misconstruing things
 Plans are conjured up = leads many to downfall

Yorick’s Skull
 Hamlet’s fascination with the physical consequences of death
 Equality in death (prince/peasant return to dust)

Other themes to consider:

Appearance and Reality Delay Corruption & Disease

Madness Sin & Salvation Disorder in Nature
Revenge Friendship & Faithlessness Pain & Suffering