Symbolism In Hamlet

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is a timeless play which continues to remain relevant across all generations due to its presentation of ideas that are fundamental to humanity. The play highlights aspects that relate to the society of not only Elizabethan England but also that of our modern society. Hamlet, as a character, considers ideas from outside his time and is somewhat relatable to modern day man. By drawing from ideas of archetypes and the human psyche, it reveals that Hamlet relates deeply to the elements of humanity.

William Shakespeare uses a multitude of major well-hidden symbols in his famous play, Hamlet. One of the first symbols to be uncovered early in the play is Hamlets father returning as an apparition. His father’s ghost reveals the plot of the play to the reader by telling Hamlet that Claudius, his uncle murdered him in cold blood and Hamlet must avenge him ultimately symbolizing death. Another a major yet well-hidden symbol within the play is the flowers that Ophelia hands out to her brother Laertes, the royal King Claudius and Queen Gertrude. Each type of flower handed out hint major clues about the characters that received flowers, which make them an extremely important symbol. The skull of Yorick is also a major symbol that hides vital

Shakespeare's drama Hamlet has become a central piece of literature of Western culture. It is the story of a prince named Hamlet, who lost his father. Soon after that he has to confront multiple obstacles and devises a series of situations to defend the new king's royalty. Furthermore, he had to prove that King Claudius, who was the prince's uncle, had killed Hamlet's father. This story has remained among the most popular and the most controversial plays around the world. It generates controversy for all the doubts that this play leaves with the readers. One of the most questioning situations in the play is the delay of Hamlet in avenging Claudius' for his father's death. As a reader this

Throughout history, literature has been able to captivate and enchant audiences of all backgrounds. Words have an undeniable ability to sway a crowd’s emotions and truly affect them. William Shakespeare, one of the most revered writers of all time, had such skills. His plays are timeless pieces of art considered the foundations of the English literature. Shakespeare’s most dramatic and infamous tragedy, Hamlet, has earned its place as a cornerstone. In the play, Shakespeare poetically writes speeches that show the true colours of the characters, whether good or devious. The main antagonist, Claudius, shows his treachery to the Elizabethan audience, through his speech to his wife Gertrude. Claudius’ conversation with Gertrude in Act 4,

Texts reflect their context and paradigms but transcendental texts that explore aspects of humanity can resonate through time and remain relevant and accessible to audiences. William Shakespeare’s introspective play, Hamlet, explores the complexity of the human condition by reflecting ideologies such as justice, loyalty and morality. Although these deeply human ideas ensure the plays resonance, they are somewhat secondary to the depths of Hamlet’s human struggle. These thematic concerns reflect how flaws in the values of society descend into corruption. Through an exploration of the characterization, Shakespeare invites a re-evaluation of the values that shape human nature. The textual integrity of Hamlet makes it of distinctive

In the play Hamlet, Claudius is known as the villain of the play. He is the lead antagonist who is characterized as a cunning, incestuous, and vile, usurper. Many readers and critics of the play do not dispute this perception, especially after reading how Claudius became the King of Denmark; He steals the throne by poisoning his brother, the previous king, and quickly marrying Queen Gertrude his widowed sister in law (1.5.42, 60-74). The general reading of Claudius’s character paints him to be a corrupt, cowardly politician, in addition to being Hamlet’s (the protagonist) foe. This portrait engages first-time readers to judge Claudius immediately and although this perspective of his personality is proven to be true, it is limited. Claudius

Here, disease imagery is used to convey the disease of corruption that appears to have infected those from Elsinore. This is the true King Claudius - without the superficial grandeur. From this example of multi-faceted personality, it can be seen how Shakespeare uses the pretence of his characters as the basis of their complex personalities. If this is compared to the introspective nature of Hamlet's behavior, the difference between the two main instigators of corruption is quite marked.

     Claudius’ lies are effective enough to persistently deceive to play’s antagonist, Hamlet. Despite Hamlet’s disgust with Claudius for marrying Gertrude, and his view of Claudius as “a king of shreds and patches” (III.iv.104), Hamlet suspicion of Claudius as a murderer is preliminarily nonexistent. The appearance of a spirit claiming to be Hamlet’s dead father first alerts Hamlet to the actions of “that incestuous, that adulterate beast, /With witchcraft of his with, with traitorous gifts” (I.v.42-3). And yet still, Hamlet remains hesitant to believe that Claudius was the murderer, searching for complementary evidence. The play that Hamlet enacts -- designed to “catch the conscience of the king” (II.ii.562) --succeeds in revealing Claudius’ guilt, but does not provoke instant action on Hamlet’s part. So effective is Claudius’ manipulation of the royal circle that he manages to almost permanently stay the revelation of his guilt, and if it weren’t for supernatural intervention against an injustice, he may never have been exposed.

In many of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the playwright draws a connection between the moral health of the kingdom and the corruption of the ruler himself. In Hamlet, he explores the extent to which corruption influences characters. By utilising animal and nature imagery, Shakespeare exemplifies how sexual and political vices corrupt characters and ultimately lead to their demise.

Hamlet evidently creates an argument against himself creating a distinguishable divide in thought process, indicated through the conjunction, ‘Yet I’. This product of contemplation is portrayed as the driving force of the conflicted soul of Hamlet. Recurring motifs of emptiness ‘And all for nothing?’, ‘And can say nothing’, and the repetition of nothing creates a cyclical tone in argument that reinforces contemplation as a form of procrastination from concluding the rivalry with Claudius, thus highlighting the dichotomy between action and inaction and subsequently passion and reason. Hamlet’s confliction is further exacerbated as he metaphorically states that he is ‘prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, must like a whore unpack my heart with words.’ Consequently blurring the divide between moral and immoral actions as his revenge has been instigated by heaven in its war against the working of hell, visible in Claudius’s achievements. This presents a challenging view of desire and motivation can be halted by reason. Hamlet’s characterisation as continually self-berating and his inaction are counter-acted by the concluding rhyming couplet ‘The play’s the thing where in I’ll catch the conscience of the King.’ The rhythm of the metaphor alters and gains momentum and speed as Hamlet is presumably spurred into action emphasising

William Shakespeare’s dramatic presentation of disillusionment within Hamlet, to a great measure presents the notion that the quality of a leader is derived from one’s possession of integrity. Hamlet’s disillusionment which emerges from the discovery of Claudius’ regicide and the usurpation of his father’s divine position, produces a plethora of human dilemmas, such as the moral struggle between renaissance and medieval ideologies, the paralysing effect of uncertainty and the defining nature of mortality. Thus by exploring the universal complexity of human condition and its ability withhold integrity, Shakespeare connects to audiences of various historical contexts.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the most popular dramas in world literature, as it examines the passionate, but toxic ambitions of King Claudius. He murders his own brother, King Hamlet, to overtake the throne, power, and wife. As a result of King Claudius’ fratricide, he inherits the “primal eldest curse” of Cain and Abel, and the dispersion of his venom ends the lives of several major characters. Including, of course, Prince Hamlet, who gets drawn into a deep depression over his father’s death, who later visits him as an apparition. This essay will analyze Shakespeare’s symbolic use of poison, embodied by King Claudius and the unintended consequences of his wicked acts.

Texts become valued over time when they explore challenging and enduring ideas relevant to humanity. Hamlet (1603), a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, examines many important themes throughout the story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, who seeks revenge for his father’s murder at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. The theme of action and inaction within the play highlights the need for balance within the human mind. The innate human pursuit of knowledge is personified by the theme of death. Finally, the use of archetypal characters causes the reader to empathise with them, allowing a greater emotional connection to the story.

In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, a corrupt and chaotic world is illustrated through the through the portrayal of contrasting realms, the interior and exterior. Within in the play, Shakespeare illustrates the story of a Danish prince, Hamlet, whose uncle murders the Hamlet’s father, marries his mother, and claims the throne leading to Hamlet’s journey to avenge his father all coinciding with in the city of Elsinore. Simultaneously with Hamlet’s journey Shakespeare juxtaposes a seemingly healthy exterior concealing an interior sickens of not only the people of Elsinore but the castle surrounding Elsinore itself. This reoccurring motif embodies the play with a duplicit nature, one of concealed evil and disease that continually reminds us that, in both a specific and a broader sense, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I.i.4). This construct is exemplified through an established dichotomy of interior and exterior thematic perceptions of health from the physical setting to the characters in the Hamlet, overarching the theme of corruption to further shed light on the duplicit nature of society thus providing support for the unveiling of the truth cultivate a better understanding of how to act within society and overall lead to greater benefits for society as a whole.

Among the twenty essays published by T.S Eliot in “The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism”, one cannot help but notice the provocatively titled critique of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, “Hamlet and His Problems”. In his essay, Eliot argues that Hamlet is an “artistic failure” (Eliot 1). Again, he bluntly states that one is to come to the "irrefragable" (Eliot 2) conclusion that “Shakespeare tackled a problem which proved too much for him” (Eliot 4). Upon closer examination of the play in question, one is to quickly find that Eliot’s provoking thesis has no root in logic and common sense. In fact, it is evident the title character’s delayed revenge is validly explained in the protagonist’s characterisation; pathos is achieved throughout the play and that the emotion elicited by the dramatist in the main character was expertly illustrated in the text contrary to the author’s expressed opinion.