The Symbolism In Shakespeare English Literature Essay

One cant deny the fact that Shakespeare had a unique way of including symbolism in his plays. Through these symbols he was able to deliver a lot of messages to his readers, and often teach them life lessons too. Three of Shakespeare’s plays, which are a perfect demonstration of his symbolism, will be discussed and analyzed.

Romeo and Juliet

First play is Romeo and Juliet. It has many symbols such as poison, thumb-biting, love and sexuality. Talking about poison, Friar Lawrence says that not one thing, regardless of whether it was herb, stone or a plant, exists in nature should have both bad and good sides. This means that poison isn’t normally evil; it is the humans that make it evil (“Romeo and juliet,” ).When Juliet wants to fake her death, Friar Lawrence gives her a sleeping potion so as to make everything alright, but instead leads to Romeo’s death. The use of poison shows the people’s ability to make good things turn bad, same as the whole stupid fight going on between the Montague and Capulet that turned Romeo and Juliet’s love to poison(“Romeo and juliet,” ).

Thumb-biting is considered as an offensive gesture, as used in the play, when Sampson bites his thumb at the Montague’s servant it starts a fight and Sampson doesn’t want to be accused for triggering it (“Thumb-biting,”). It is considered just as offensive as words, and taking into account that Sampson explained to Gregory what it means; perhaps the meaning was also unknown to the audience of the play. Therefore, thumb-biting (a meaningless gesture) in this play symbolizes how stupid the fight between both families is and how violence in general is also stupid (“Thumb-biting,”).

Another symbol is love. Whenever they talk about love, they include religious vocabulary. In other words, religious worship is symbolized. Romeo calls Juliet a “saint” and implies that he’d really like to “worship” her body”(Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). Not only that, but Romeo’s “hand” would be “blessed” if it touched the divine Juliet’s. Eventually, Juliet picks up on this “religion of love” conceit and declares that Romeo is “the god of [her] idolatry”(Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008).

The final symbol is Romeo and Juliet is sexuality. Sex is symbolized in an indirect way in the play. First, Romeo drinks his poison from a goblet, which is a “symbol of women’s womb”(Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). Second, Juliet stabs herself with “Romeo’s dagger” which is also “a symbol of male’s sexuality” Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). Physical death is combined sexually. What is ironic is that usually sex acts between a women and a man produce life, in the play, these symbols and acts ended lives (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008).

Hamlet

The second play is Hamlet. The skull of Yorick played an important role in the symbolism of this play. Hamlet realizes that regardless of the life the person was living, every person will have equal ending when they die. He is astonished of how a person like Yorick ended up in the same state as Alexander the Great (“Important symbols”, 2012)

Poison plays a big role in Hamlet. It is a symbol of betrayal and death. Further, “it helps us understand the bitter relationships that exist in the play” (“Imagery in hamlet”). The blinded lust for power and irony were also symbolized by poison. First, the fact that Claudius killed King Hamlet using poison demonstrates how the extra love of power can lead a person to do horrible crimes against the closest people. Second, poison was also used by Hamlet to kill king Claudius. In other words, both King Hamlet and Claudius were killed by the same tool: Poison. I found that this was ironic (“Death, decay and,”).

Another symbolism in Hamlet is Ophelia’s flowers. When Ophelia goes mad, she enters the scene with different types of flowers and gives each flower to a different person in order to express her feelings towards each. She gives Rosemary to Laertes as a symbol of “remembrance”, and pansies as a symbol of “thoughts” (“Important symbols in,”). Both types of these flowers also are a symbol of faithfulness (Eriksson). Daisies were given to King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, as they represent betrayal and lies, because they betrayed King Hamlet and lied to everyone else. Second, she gives columbines to King Claudius as a symbol of “Emblem of Deceived lovers” (Erkisson). She also gives him fennel. Long time ago, there was a belief that this type of flower would let the evil spirits go away. In other words, “Ophelia giving fennel to King Claudius is more of a declaration that he himself is evil” (Trinity, 2008). Finally violets, which represent faith, were not given to anyone (“A violet named,”) On the other hand, some people believe that they were given to Horatio because he was the only ‘good one’ between all the other characters, who is trusted by both Hamlet and Ophelia (“Importance of”, 2012).

Macbeth

The final play to be discussed is Macbeth. Light and dark were very prominent symbols. They represent good and evil, respectively. In some part of the play, the witches were referred to as darkness. Most of the “evil” events that happen occur in the night, such as Banquo’s murder (“The battle between,” 2007). Light, however, is mentioned less in the play. Light is a form of good and is used as a “form of protection from the darkness” (“The battle between,” 2007), such as when Lady Macbeth goes mad she always demands on having a candle with her, because she thinks that it will protect her from the dark forces she summoned. Also, the only times light was actually present, were in the beginning when King Duncan was still alive and in the end when Macbeth was brought to justice (“The battle between,” 2007). This also shows how light represents good, so light and dark, here, symbolize the battle between good and evil.

A second symbol in Macbeth is ” the Eight Kings”. He visits the witches to know if Banquo’s descendants will become kings, “they summon a vision of eight kings, the last of which holds a mirror that reflects on many more such kings” (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008).These are Bonquo’s heir and Macbeth is unhappy of what he saw. It’s important to note that one of the kings in the mirror happens to be holding two orbs and is a symbolic representation of King James I of England, who traced his derivation back to Banquo. In 1603, at James’s coronation ceremony in England, he held two orbs “one representing England and the other representing Scotland”(Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008).We can’t dismiss the fact that King James was a major patron of Shakespeare, and that the Bard here shows his debt of gratitude to the King by exploring his Scottish roots and confirming the derivation of an English king.

A third symbol is blood which symbolizes the guilt that is haunting Macbeth and Lady Macbeth especially after they committed their crimes. They believe that their hands are permanently stained with blood, such as when Macbeth murders Duncan; he thinks nothing is able to wash the blood off his hands. Even though the real blood is washed off, it is the imaginary blood that remains, and this symbolizes how the feeling of guilt became a part of Lady Macbeth. Like when Macbeth imagines there is a dagger covered in imaginary blood and it directs him towards Duncan’s room. So, blood symbolizes the guilt that will never be washed away.

Finally, in this play, there are a lot of images of dead children; such as the time when the witches summon a vision and a ghost of a bloody child appears they told Macbeth that he “will not be harmed by a man that is woman-born” (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). When Macbeth orders that his enemies’ children be killed, he is concentrated on ending their “family lines” (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). This is probably because Banquo’s descendants will be kings and because Macbeth doesn’t have any heirs himself. By the end of the play, when Malcolm is crowned as rightful king, order is restored, and it is certain that Banquo’s heirs are to be kings.

In conclusion, we can say that Shakespeare include a lot of symbolism throughout his plays which portrayed Shakespeare’s life, time period, and messages he wished to get across to his audience. Most of these symbols are timeless, because they represent human nature that is the same in all eras of time.

Work cited

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Death, decay and disease in hamlet. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=13605

Eriksson, K. (n.d.). Ophelia’s flowers and their symbolic meaning. Retrieved from http://huntingtonbotanical.org/Shakespeare/ophelia.htm

The Modern Language Review , Vol. 42, No. 1 (Jan., 1947), pp. 9-23 Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3716953

Trinity, A. (2008, may 11). Ophelia letting the flowers do the talking. Retrieved from http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Ophelia-Letting-the-Flowers-do-the-Talking/993451

St. Rosemary Educational Institution. “Important Symbols in Hamlet.” http://schoolworkhelper.net/. St. Rosemary Educational Institution, Last Update: 2012. Web. Retrieved on: Sunday 16th December 2012. http://schoolworkhelper.net/important-symbols-in-hamlet/.

Shmoop Editorial Team. “Love as Religious Worship in Romeo and Juliet” Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 16 Dec. 2012.

Shmoop Editorial Team. (November 11, 2008).Plants and Poison in Romeo and Juliet. Retrieved December 17, 2012, from http://www.shmoop.com/romeo-and-juliet/plants-poison-symbol.html

Shmoop Editorial Team. (November 11, 2008).Sex and Death in Romeo and Juliet. Retrieved December 17, 2012, from http://www.shmoop.com/romeo-and-juliet/sex-death-symbol.html