| pipe | Hamlet says that R&G cannot play him basically saying they can’t fool him. They think he means literally having the musical capabilities needed to play. |
| Yorick’s Skull | Hamlet consistently speaks of all humans eventually dying and turning into dust and mentions Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar |
| arras | Polonius always spies behind a curtain like a false front without confronting the situation directly |
| Ophelia’s flowers | She talks directly about the symbolic meaning, but what’s also important is who might be getting them. If she’s with-it enough to match the right one to the right character, how crazy is she, really? |
| The Ghost | Common element in revenge tragedy and represents how young Hamlet is haunted by his dad’s memory |
| “Rank” Gardens | According to Hamlet, the entire world “tis an unweeded garden, / That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely” (1.2.6). These recall Eve’s temptation in the Biblical Garden of Eden, particularly when the Ghost reveals that Old King Hamlet was murdered by his brother, Claudius, while he slept in his orchard |
| Hamlet’s black clothing | He wears this because he’s in mourning for his dead father, and it sets him apart from the entire kingdom because no one else dresses like this just like how everyone is cheerful in Claudius’s court, and Hamlet is an outsider |
Symbolism in Hamlet
July 3, 2019