Motifs of Hamlet

Act III, Scene iv

"Hamlet: Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty"

Act I, Scene v

"Ghost: Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,

A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now wears his crown."

What is a symbol?

Something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance; especially : a visible sign of something invisible

Picture of a "rank garden" like Hamlet is comparing his mother's marriage to.

There are many important symbols in this play such as the skull, the ghost, flowers, and Hamlet's clothes but the one I chose to talk about was the garden symbol. According to Hamlet, the entire world "tis an unweeded garden, / That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely" (Act I, Scene ii). ( http://www.shmoop.com/hamlet/rank-gardens-symbol.html) The word "rank" refers to the fertile overgrowth of vegetation and also implies the kind of festering and rot that often accompanies it. Other than being a sybmol for Gerturde's marriage it is also a symbol of the Garden of Eden and Eve's temptation.

Symbols