Paper 1 The Renaissance literature

Topic

On various theme, motifs, and symbols in the play ‘Hamlet’.

Paper 1  The Renaissance literature

Name Devendra A Joshi

Class M.A. Sem-1

Submitted To Prof. Dilip Barad (Head of English Dept. M. K. S. Bhavnagar University)

Ø   Themes, Motifs and Symbol in Hamlet.

One of the motifs in the play Hamlet is the Oedipus complex. It is defined as a male child's unconscious desires for the exclusive love of his mother. It is shown in the play through Hamlet's reaction towards his mother. Hamlet is very resentful of Claudius not only for killing his father, but also marrying his mother so hastily. He states,

"She married o most wicked speed to post and with such dexterity to incestuous sheets, it is not nor it cannot come to good, but break my heart, for i must hold my tongue."

      May be Hamlet is holding his tongue because he wants to confess his desires to his mother, which he is unable to do.

      1. We find in the dialogues of the characters, the description of decay and decadence prevalent in the state Denmark ruled by King Claudius. Having just seen the ghost of Hamlet's father, the late king of Denmark, Marcellus says,

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,"

      And repeated throughout the play is vegetative decay, which symbolizes evil and the irreducible fact of death. The culmination of this might be the moment when the clown hands Hamlet the skull of his father’s court jester. An interesting contrast is all the floral and herbal imagery surrounding Ophelia.

      Shakespeare is creating a sonnet-worthy extended metaphors about the fragility of real living things.

      2) There are many lovely moments in the play where men express trust. These namely occur between Hamlet and Horatio and finally between Hamlet and alerted then in Fortinbras’ final speech.

      Hamlet pushes Ophelia away because he is tainted; he is sure his proximity would only destroy her. In all of Hamlet’s words to Ophelia, he echoes his first two soliloquies on his preoccupation with his own seemingly indifferent attitude. And yet Ophelia addresses her false lover, and also speaks of him as if he were as good as dead.

      The play Hamlet, explores all the different uses of poison, literal as well as metaphorical. Poison is something that can affect your body, not by death alone, but causing madness. Too much thinking poisons Hamlet’s mind.

      A specific gendrered reading will take certain themes, symbols, motifs, nuances innuendo that would otherwise simply form a cacophony, and organise them into a coherent reading. Ophelia's nature is manifested through the symbol of the violet flower which has a brief existence.