Tracing Motifs and Themes in Hamlet

Conclusion

In the modern world we don't poison to kill and to get revenge on someone we once had beef with these days, but if we wanted to its done more quickly and more discreet without any witnesses around or they would probably get arrested and sent to prison with a death sentence .

As the theme of revenge and justice reaches its conclusion when Hamlet finally kills Claudius with the poison.

before the dual, Hamlet seems at peace and also quite sad but had made his peace with the important people in his life and gotten revenge on the one that started the major conflict.

The End

Death -Motif is Poison

Claudius is to blame for the poison in the cup and the poisoned sword so Hamlet demands Claudius to drink from the cup and stabs him with the sword to his death.

Act 1 scene 5 line (25)

this quote is a reference of death spoken by Hamlet

"foul and most unnatural murder"

Hamlet tells Horatio that he is dying and exchanges a last forgiveness with Laertes , he also wishes Fortinbras to be made king of Denmark then he finally dies.

The ghost of the old king tells how he is murdered, and demands for Hamlet to seek revenge upon Claudius. This sets the main plot of the play into motion and leads Hamlet to the idea of madness.

"one woe doth tread upon another's heel, so fast they follow. Your sister's drowned , Laertes''

Act 4 scene 7 line (163-164)

(Gertrude towards Laertes)

this quotation occurs in Act 1 Scene 2 Line (129-158)

Hamlet speaks these lines after the unpleasant scene at Claudius and Gertrude's court.

Against Hamlets wishes he is told by his mother and step father to remain in Denmark, here is the first time Hamlet thinks about suicide (desiring his flesh to "melt" ) and wishing that God had not made ("self-slaughter" a sin) and saying that the world is ("weary,stale, and unprofitable)

In other words suicide seems like a alternative to life in a painful world but feels it is no option because it goes against his religion. Hamlet describes his pain and his disgust at his mothers marriage to Claudius during this scene.

Ophelia fell into a river by accident but doesn't try to same herself , instead lets go of life letting her clothes dregg her under water to be drowned.

At the end everyone dies

Act 3/4/5

towards the end of the play almost every one seems to be out of control and in some cases going mad! Such as Hamlet of the cause of his fathers death and being torn away from Ophelia, and Ophelia herself going insane for the cause of the unbarrable death of her own father.

The line of deaths start with Polonius getting stabbed by Hamlet behind the tapestry by accident in Act 3 scene 4.

The after math of the old kings death

The last of the deaths

During the dual with Hamlet and Laertes, Hamlet gets stabbed by the poisoned sword then both manage to switch swords and Hamlet stabs Laerte with his own sword. Both end up getting poisoned and are soon to be dead.

Towards the climax of the play Claudius is going through with his plan to kill Hamlet by either a cut of a poisoned sword or by drinking poison out of a cup waiting for him. Instead of Hamlet drinking the poisoned wine Gertrude comes along and drinks it and quickly dies of the toxins from the glass.

Act 5 Scene 2

The significance of the poison is what started all of the tension in the play between Claudius and Hamlet, also with the old king in the form of a ghost showing up between scenes.

Act 5 Scene 1 lines (174-175)

"get you to my lady's chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come"

After the death of Hamlets father , Hamlet becomes fascinated with the idea of death . Hamlet takes in both spiritual aftermath of death and the physical remainders of the dead, such as Yoricks skull and the rotten corpses in the grave which all plays into the belief of being the consequence of revenge.

In Hamlet physical objects are rarely used to represent themed ideas.

one inportant exception is Yorick's scull which Hamlet discovers in the grave yard.