Themes, motifs and symbols in Hamlet
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The document discusses several major themes in Hamlet including: the impossibility of certainty as seen through questions about ghosts and uncertain facts; the complexity of action and how characters approach action differently; and the mystery of death and different perspectives on death. It also discusses motifs like incest and misogyny, and symbols like Yorick's skull that represent themes in the play.
Themes, motifs and symbols in Hamlet
- 1. Themes are fundamental and often universal ideas explored in literary work THEMES
- 2. The impossibility of Certainty • In Hamlet we can find questions about the certainty of facts. – Can we have certain knowledge about ghosts? – How can we know for certain the fact about a crime that has no witness? • Hamlet has been seen as a play about indecisiveness. • Hamlet shows a life of uncertainties.
- 3. The complexity of action • The question of how to act is affected by: – Need of certainty Factors – Emotional – Ethical – Psychological Hamlet Other characters - Thinks abstractly - don’t care so much about about action. how to act. - His actions are violent. - Their actions are controlled. - The result of their actions leads them to digrace.
- 4. The mystery of death Two perspectives of death : Spiritual perspective: Death as transcendent Physical perspective: The decline of the body cause Death is of revenge also consequenc e Truth and uncertainty Death is related with Spiritualit is moral or suicide y not in which despite The Christian religion prohibition
- 5. The nation as a diseased body welfare actions - Denmark is frequently described as ill body by the moral corruption of the monarchs. - At the end, when Fortimbras takes the power, it is suggested that Denmark will be strengthen again
- 6. Motifs are recurrent structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text major themes MOTIFS (recurrent structures)
- 7. Incest and Incestuous Desire Gertrude and Claudius Brother in-law and sister in-law now married. Laertes and Ophelia - Laertes speaks to her in sexual terms. - He leaps her into her grave to hold her in his arms. Hamlet and Gertrude - hamlet’s fixation on gertrude’s sex life. - hamlet’s preoccupation for her.
- 8. Misogyny • Misogyny occurs sporadically throughout the play. • Hamlet becomes cynical about woman in general. • there’s a connection between female sexuality and corruption. • It is an inhibiting factor in hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia and Gertrude.
- 9. Ears and hearing • Words are used to communicate ideas, but also they can – Distort the truth – Manipulate other people – Serve as tools in corrupt quests of power • The sinister uses of words are represented by images of ears and hearing: – claudius’s murder of the king by pouring poison in his ear
- 10. Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors to represent abstract ideas or concepts SYMBOLS
- 11. Yorick’s Skull • hamlet fixates on death’s inevitability and the disintegration of the body. • No one can avoid death.