Motifs in Hamlet

[Ray Eston Smith]

Please take a look at my Hamlet website, members.cox.net/jhaldenwang/thyorison.htm

Please read my essays in wikinfo and post your own and add links to them on the Motifs in Hamlet page.

There are a number of interlocking motifs in Hamlet which reveal much about Hamlet’s character and the themes of the play. See Motif (literature)

(1) Hamlet's Wheel Motif

Fine revolution, knave/nave, whirling words, circumstance, circumscribed, whale/wheel, how the wheel becomes it, at the center, be round with him, it would be spoke to, to the top of my bent.

(2) Dirt, Death, Purgatory Motif in Hamlet

Kings caused thousands of deaths by fighting wars over land, thus, in the dirt, death, purgatory motif in Hamlet associates land with death. There is also a connection between purgatory and land in English history.

(3) Death, Birth, Grave, Womb Motif in Hamlet

There is a motif associating death with birth and graves with wombs.

Since kings cause thousands of deaths by fighting wars over land, Hamlet equated his own birth and that of any future son with death and equated wombs with graves and land with graveyards.

(4) Hamlet's Fish Motif

The fish motif in Hamlet involves the carp of truth, a fishmonger, a man who ate a fish who ate a worm, and wormwood.

(5) Hamlet's Silence and the Voice of Denmark Motif

When Hamlet said "the rest is silence," he meant that he was finally free from the "voice of Denmark".

(6) Hamlet's Question Motif

Who's there, essential question of the play be then to be, to be or not to be, that is the question, so like the king that was and is the question of these wars, crowners quest

New link to article at academic publishing wiki: http://academia.wikia.com/wiki/Motifs_in_Hamlet


- Ray

[Ray Eston Smith]

I have updated my website, moved it, and renamed it to:

http://thyorisons.com/
Smith's Hyper Hamlet
An Annotated Hamlet with Hypertext Links to Related Lines, Motifs, and Essays

How to Love Hamlet - http://thyorisons.com/#Love_Hamlet

Shakespeare's plays were meant to be viewed by an audience before being read. After seeing a play, you might be driven by curiosity to dig deeper by reading the play. Then after pondering the play on your own, your curiosity might lead you to seek out other opinions. But be very skeptical of those other opinions. The only true "authority" on Shakespeare is the author himself. An opinion about Shakespeare's meaning is worthless unless fully supported by quotes from Shakespeare.

"They will scarcely believe this without trial: offer them instances." - Much Ado About Nothing

For Hamlet, I recommend starting with Sir Kenneth Branagh's 4-hour uncut version.

Then read the play yourself.

Watch for connections between lines. There are word-play connections spanning the entire play. Lines in Act I, Scene 1 begin puns that are completed in Act V, Scene 5, and clarify the meaning of the whole play. "Knave" and "nave" sound alike. Is there a pun there? Where is "nave" used? What are the possible different definitions of "knave" and "nave"? Can you discover the "trick" to see the "fine revolution" spun throughout the play?

Is Hamlet a whiny indecisive wimp? Or is he a valiant soldier of the spirit fighting a desperate internal battle to defend the sovereignty of his soul? Is Hamlet a cold-hearted self-centered misogynist who deliberately hurts Ophelia? Or does he truly love her and does he do his best to defend her from the evil forces that are bringing him down? Does Hamlet really react to his father's murder by wanting to kill HIMSELF? Or would he rather see his father's murderer commit "self-slaughter," saving Hamlet the trouble of weeding the garden? Was Hamlet true to himself when he erased "all saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied there" from his own brain and there in the book and volume of his brain wrote his father's commandment (the voice of Denmark, loosed out of Hell to speak of horrors, to breathe contagion, unfolding the secrets of his prison-house that he was forbid to tell to mortal ears)? Was Hamlet free to "carve for himself"? Was he from himself taken away? What's with the gravedigger hired on the day Hamlet was born, the same day that Hamlet's father killed Fortinbras' father to gain the land that is now "the question of these wars"? Was Hamlet's father a good king? A good king THAT was and IS THE QUESTION of these wars? Is Fortinbras the ideal prince, willing to send thousands to their graves for "his honor"? Or is Hamlet the better man, because he gave up "his honor" and his land to avert a war that would have doomed thousands of his countrymen?

After you've seen and read and thought about Hamlet, please read the following short essays that I wrote. My interpretations are radically different from the "authorities", but I thoroughly support every opinion with quotes from the play so I believe my interpretations are in accord with Shakespeare's intended meanings.

The Rebirth of Hamlet - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Rebirth

Hamlet in a Nutshell - Hamlet Is an Anti-War Play - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Nutshell

The Honey of His Music Vows - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Music_Vows

Old Men in the Book of his Brain - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Old_Men

Remembrances in the Book of Their Brains - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Remembrances

An Envious Sliver - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Envious_Sliver

Fine Revolution - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Revolution

How the Wheel Becomes It - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Wheel_Becomes

Three Famous Quotes from Hamlet - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Famous_quotes

To Thine Ownself Be True - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Ownself_Be

The Mole of Nature - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Mole

An Honest Ghost? - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Dishonest_Ghost

Usurp Your Sovereignty of Reason - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Usurp

The Cause of Hamlet's Lunacy - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Cause_of_Lunacy

Mad in Craft - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Mad_in_Craft

The Memory Be Green - Hamlet in Historical Context - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Historical_Context

Terms Compulsatory - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Terms_Compulsatory

The Election of His Soul - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Election

Mine Uncle, More Like My Father - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Uncle_Father

The Cloud, the Cannon, and in the Cup a Union - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Cloud_Cannon_Cup

The Cannon May Miss Our Name - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Cannon_Miss

A Camel in My Mind's Eye - http://www.thyorisons.com/#Camel_Eye