What Do You Know About Hamlet Symbols?

What Do You Know About Hamlet Symbols?

Many plays and novels use symbolism to express a feeling or emotion in an intelligent way. A symbol is something that is used to show something else. It can be a tangible object or a written symbol used to represent something that is not actually there. Symbols are important to have within any written work because you can then relate it to a theme that it may have and get a deeper connection with it. Within the play Hamlet there were multiple symbols used to symbolize a theme and to show the audience that there was a meaning behind why it was used. The main representations shown were flowers symbolized through Ophelia and her feelings, clothing which was symbolized by Hamlet and his wardrobe throughout the play, and madness characterized for the most part by Hamlet. There are many important symbols in Hamlet. Perhaps the three most striking ones are flowers and weeds, clothing, and madness.
Shakespeare used the symbol of flowers to illustrate his characters feelings and emotions. Ophelia’s father had recently been killed by who she thought was her love, Hamlet. She shows her feelings by handing out invisible flowers and describing them as different reasons. “..Rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pansies, that’s for thoughts, there’s a daisy: I would give you some violets but they all withered when my father died.” (4.5.190-195) She knew exactly what she was doing within her actions, while mentioning all the flowers she was giving a reason for what each one was for. The flowers were for specific characters in the play, she is trying to use the flowers as a pathway to hint at what she means without actually telling them. “Lay her I’ th’ earth; And from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring!” (5.1.248-250) Laertes was saying that even though Ophelia is dead she will still have flowers after her death. The last word that Laertes heard from Ophelia was about violets, so it was incorporated into his final speech to her at the funeral which was a good incorporation on his part. “Tis’ an unweeded garden, that grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.” (1.2.135-137) Hamlet started comparing the world to a garden that had not been weeded and became gross. He saw that the world in his eyes was becoming untamed and crazy, and nothing seemed to be going right. From that point his choice in clothing expressed what he was feeling about the deaths he had experienced and became his symbol of inner emotions. Clothing developed into a symbolic way of showing feelings or how much money you possess.
Appearance within Hamlet had a way of expressing certain moods, emotions and wealth. A scene opened with the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude, Hamlet came in wearing all black as he was still in mourning for his father who had just recently been murdered. “Nor customary suits of solemn black.. That can truly denote me truly” (1.2.77-82) Hamlet said that his outfit should signify what he is truly feeling on the inside. His black outfit showed mourning and the grief he still had for his father. “Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy. For the apparel oft proclaims the man.” (1.3.70-72) Polonius was telling Laertes that when he goes away to university that he should not dress to the point he overpowers his friends’ clothes. He should buy nice and expensive clothes that are appropriate compared to others. It can be rich looking but not showy. “His doublet all unbraced; no hat upon his head; his stockings foul’d, ungarter’d and down to his ancle, pale as his shirt.” (2.1.78-81) The appearance he was trying to portray to Ophelia at that point is that he had gone mad, so he adjusted his clothing to suit it accordingly. This was helping him convince Ophelia that he had lost his mind and the appearance of his clothes reflects the state of mind he was in. Ophelia said that his skin was pale like his shirt which shows that he was not wearing his black clothing anymore, which had probably given her the impression something was wrong. Hamlet showing that he had lost his mind became a symbol of madness within the play.
Sometimes it is hard to tell if someone’s madness is real or fake. In Hamlet’s case sometimes it was hard to tell if he was just putting on an act or not. Hamlet did a very good job if it had all just been an act to make everyone believe his madness. “Put an antic disposition on” (1.5.172) Hamlet told Horatio and Marcellus that he was going to act mad and that they should not think that he was actually crazy. He changes both his appearance and his behaviour depending on who he was with. He got everyone to believe that he had actually gone mad because of the way he was acting and talking. “He knew me not at first; he said I was a fish monger: he is far gone, far gone: and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this.” (2.2.187-191) Polonius believed that Hamlet’s madness was caused by his love for Ophelia, which was not true but it was what Polonius had assumed from the way Hamlet had been acting and treating Ophelia. Hamlet had at least made him believe that he had gone mad even if it was not the right reason behind it. “That you do bend your eye on vacancy.. forth at your eyes your spirit wildly peep.. whereon do you look?” (3.4.116-123). Gertrude had started to believe that Hamlet was crazy when he started looking into thin air and talking to what he said was a ghost. Gertrude doesn’t see it, and believed that he was crazy, which Hamlet wanted her to believe. By that point it had been unsure if Hamlet was acting or he was actually mad, because usually the ghost was seen by everyone that had been around but Gertrude could not see it. This may have been the starting of his actual madness that he had wanted just to be an act in the beginning.
Despite the many symbols in Hamlet there were three main ones that stood out the most during analyzing. Flowers and weeds relate to Ophelia and Hamlet by using them as her way of showing her inner feeling and emotions without actually expressing herself and for Hamlet referencing to the world. Clothing also became important for Hamlet’s character as he also used it to express his inner feelings. The last one that became very symbolic was madness because it went from being an act on Hamlet’s part but then developed into not being able to decipher if the madness was real or fake. Hamlet’s madness and clothing overlaps with each other as the way he decided to dress corresponded to the way he was acting mad. Therefore these three symbols became clear to be the most important within the play and were also majorly symbolic for the characters that they related to.