Hamlet+-+Symbolism

=Shakespeare= =Hamlet= = = =Hamlet Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory=

Sometimes, there’s more to Lit than meets the eye.
http://www.shmoop.com/hamlet/symbolism-imagery.html

Hamlet's constant brooding about death and humanity comes to a (grotesque) head in the infamous graveyard scene, where Hamlet holds up the unearthed skull of Yorick, a court jester Hamlet knew and loved as a young boy. The skull itself is a physical reminder of the finality of death. After all of Hamlet's brooding and philosophical contemplation of mortality, Hamlet literally looks death directly in the face right here. As you can probably guess, it's a turning point for Hamlet. He thinks about the commonness of death and the vanity of life. He not only remembers Yorick, a mere jester, but also considers what's become of the body that belonged to Alexander the Great. Both men, concludes Hamlet, meet the same end and "returneth into dust" (5.1.30). Morbid? Sure. But it also seems like a new, more mature acceptance of a common human fate. He may be contemplative, but he's not melodramatically contemplating suicide or anything.......... the graveyard is specifically opposed to the royal court, and not just because of the dirt and bones and all. In Act I the court is a place where Hamlet's told to "not for ever with they vailed lids/ Seek for thy noble father in the dust" (1.2.6) and reminded that "your father lost a father,/ That father lost, lost his" (1.2): in other words, there's no time to remember the dead. People die; get over it; move on. But not in the graveyard. In the graveyard, Hamlet's allowed to remember the dead. "Alas, poor Yorick," says Hamlet, as he recalls that Yorick was "a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy," one who "hath borne [Hamlet] on his back a thousand times" (5.1.26). So, Hamlet encounters the skull of a man who worked for his father and who Hamlet knew as a child. He remembers his childhood as a happy time in which Old Hamlet was alive and all was well in the world. All this happiness, of course, is disrupted when Hamlet realizes Ophelia (now dead) is being buried a few gravestones over.

A lot of literary critics notice that the ghost has a whole lot in common with young Hamlet. They talk alike (mostly about Gertrude's "unnatural" and "incestuous" relationship with Claudius) and they also kind of look alike at one point. Remember when Ophelia describes the way Hamlet appeared when he showed up in her room looking all ghostly "pale," almost "as if he had been loosed out of hell" (2.1.83)? Yeah, sounds a lot like the ghost to us. So maybe the ghost-as-dad is just a figment of Hamlet's imagination. Other characters may see the ghost (the castle guards and Horatio, for example), but Hamlet's the only one who has a dialogue with it. He's also the only one who sees or hears the ghost when it shows up in Gertrude's chamber to remind Hamlet to be nice to his mom (3.4.111-116.1). Has Hamlet been imagining his conversations with the ghost the whole time? Does this have anything to do with the fact that Hamlet says to Horatio "My father! —methinks I see my father [...] in my mind's eye" (1.2.184,185.2) before he even finds out that the ghost has been appearing on the castle walls? Regardless of whether or not we believe the ghost is "real," we feel safe saying that the spirit represents the way young Hamlet is haunted by his dad's memory. We get it; the prince has just lost one of the most important figures in his life, a man he idolizes and loves, and everyone is just telling him to move on and forget about his father. Claudius insists Hamlet's excessive grief is "unmanly" and Gertrude tells Hamlet to ditch his mourning clothes and quit moping (1.2.69-73). Maybe he's real and maybe he's not—either way, he sure seems real to Hamlet.

**"Rank" Gardens**
The gardens in //Hamlet// aren't necessarily the kind of places where you'd like to hang out and watch butterflies while you picnic. In fact, they're more like overgrown vacant lots than plots that have been tended and nurtured. According to Hamlet, the entire world "tis an unweeded garden, / That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely" (1.2.135-137).

Yuck. The word "rank" refers to the fertile overgrowth of vegetation and also implies the kind of festering and rot that often accompanies lush foliage. You know, push away that pretty vine, and underneath you see a rotting log with a bunch of icky white grubs. And the term "rank" turns up over and over again throughout the play. There's the "mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected" that the play-within-a-play's Lucianus pours in Gonzago's ear, or Hamlet's description of his mother's "rank" marriage bed:

//Nay, but to live// //In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,// //Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love// //Over the nasty sty, —//(3.4.92.2-95.1). .

**Hamlet's Costume Changes**
Early on in the play, we learn that Hamlet's all black get-up seems to be getting on his mom's nerves. (Good to know that some things haven't changed since 1600.) But why? Well, Hamlet wears an "inky cloak" because he's in mourning for his dead father—but he's the only one in court still wearing black. Now that Claudius is king, the happy couple wants everyone to forget about Old Hamlet. So, Hamlet's black attire sets him apart from everyone else —just like his grief makes him an outsider in the cheerful court. (When the play's staged, Hamlet's black clothing really stands out, especially when the director positions him off to the side of stage while the rest of the court is in the center.) But don't tell Hamlet that his clothes reflect his grief —he might jump down your throat, as he does here when his mom asks him why he "seems" so sad:

//'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,// //Nor customary suits of solemn black,// //Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,// //No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,// //Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,// //Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,// //That can denote me truly// (1.2.4)

In other words, Hamlet objects to the idea that any outward signs (dress, behavior, etc.) can truly "denote" what he's feeling on the inside (which is rotten). Hamlet's "suits of solemn black," he says, can't even begin to express his grief and anguish. Later on, however, Hamlet changes his tune about what it is that clothing or costume can "denote." After he decides to play the role of an "antic" or madman, he does a costume change. Check out Ophelia's description of Hamlet:

//My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,// //Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;// //No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,// //Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle;// //Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;// //And with a look so piteous in purport// //As if he had been loosed out of hell// //To speak of horrors, —he comes before me.// (2.1.1)

If we assume that Hamlet makes himself appear disheveled in order to convince Ophelia that he's lost his mind, then we can also assume that Hamlet is banking on the convention that one's physical attire is a reflection of one's state of mind. And it works. Ophelia and Polonius are convinced that Hamlet is mad. At the same time, we know (at least, we think we know) that Hamlet isn't really mad. So is he right after all, that clothes don't indicate anything about the state of mind? If he is—and we suspect that he is—then this is a pretty mind-blowing statement for Shakespeare to make: there can be a //difference// between the outside and the inside. And that difference, dear Shmoopers, is called //interiority//. Welcome to the next 400+ years of literature. For Hamlet himself the script clearly requires four costumes: black mourning dress for the beginning ("a suit of sables"), the same costume disheveled until he leaves for England ("his doublet all unbraced"), outdoor or traveling dress for the graveyard ("my seagown scarfed about me"), and clothes suitable for dueling in the last scene ("the readiness is all").

**Flowers**
When Ophelia loses her mind in Act IV, Scene v, she starts handing out flowers to everyone around her. Sure, she talks directly about the symbolic meaning of those flowers, but what's also important is who might be getting these flowers.

//There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,// //love, remember, and there is pansies. That's for thoughts […].// //There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue// //for you; and here's some for me: we may call it// //herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with// //a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you// //some violets, but they withered all when my father died.// (4.5)

Fennel symbolized strength and praiseworthiness, columbine symbolized folly, daisies symbolized innocence, and violets symbolized faithfulness and modesty. So which flowers belong to which characters? Does Ophelia give the rosemary (for remembrance) to an invisible Hamlet, praying he hasn't forgotten about her? Does she give the rue (another word for regret) to Gertrude, who may be regretting her hasty marriage to Claudius? And if she's with-it enough to match the right flower to the right character, how crazy is she, really?

Throughout the play, there is consistent garden imagery of weeds and flowers that are expressed through the characters’ dialogue to typically describe moral dilemmas.