Internal And External Allusions In Hamlet
Throughout Act One of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, there are frequent botanical references, used by the characters of the play to describe internal and external strife. Immediately, in Hamlet’s first soliloquy, the audience begins to understand the pain, suffering and toll his father’s death has taken on his outlook of his environment. He explains that his life is “an unweeded garden” (1:2, 135), something unruly and rough, caused from the untimely marriage of his mother to his dreadful uncle. The motif of gardens and the life within them is also used to bring wariness to certain characters’ ill-perceived actions. The image of a worm “ [galling] the infants of the spring” (1:3,39) refers to Laertes’s concern about Ophelia’s relationship
with Hamlet. The temptation of love may break Ophelia’s heart, just as the “canker” (1:3, 39) breaking the surface of the new spring flowers. Laertes also warns Ophelia that Hamlet’s attention to her is like “a violet in the youth of prime nature” (1:3, 7) ; sweet yet quick to die. The implementation of Shakespeare’s motif of nature intertwined into the dialogue, gives the audience depth and perception inside the forthcoming actions of the characters in the scenes to come.
with Hamlet. The temptation of love may break Ophelia’s heart, just as the “canker” (1:3, 39) breaking the surface of the new spring flowers. Laertes also warns Ophelia that Hamlet’s attention to her is like “a violet in the youth of prime nature” (1:3, 7) ; sweet yet quick to die. The implementation of Shakespeare’s motif of nature intertwined into the dialogue, gives the audience depth and perception inside the forthcoming actions of the characters in the scenes to come.