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View Full Version : Symbolizm to the garden of Eden



Jesse help me
02-25-2007, 02:58 PM
Hello I was wondering what u think about the symbolizm to the garden of eden in the Best play ever written hamlet and is u remeber where exactly in the novel to this instances of Symbolism Occur thanks in advance. I just finished the play and am interested in this Topic of the garden :)

yaughan
03-14-2007, 11:28 AM
Hello I was wondering what u think about the symbolizm to the garden of eden in the Best play ever written hamlet and is u remeber where exactly in the novel to this instances of Symbolism Occur thanks in advance. I just finished the play and am interested in this Topic of the garden :)

Hi Jesse!

Well it all starts when Hamlet is on his first soliloquy. He says, referring to the world in general, but probably based on his view of the court in Denmark, "..it is an unweeded garden, thins rank and gross in nature possess it merely". The reference here is to the fallen state of the world (in sin) after eden had been lost. What is more, the Elizabethans saw a well tended garden as a sympbol of order and man shaping or improving nature. So the garden image is doubly significant here.

Remember too. He says to Gertrude at the end of the closet scene, not to deny sheŽs done something wrong..."...do not spread the compost on the weeds to make them ranker". She has obviously sinned and the corruption spreads , like weeds will do if not rooted out.

Hope that gets you started, there are more but IŽll let you find them.

Cheers

Jim58
03-19-2007, 11:32 PM
The garden is a common rhetorical device of Shakespeare's. In Hamlet, the Garden of Eden is a metaphor for Elsinore under King Hamlet. In Act 1 Scene 5, the Ghost recounts the circumstances surrounding his death. He was sleeping in his orchard when a serpent stung him. Though the evil doer was his brother, Claudius it was represented that he was bitten by a snake.