Motifs

The Motifs of Hamlet make a rather long list, since Shakespeare repeated many concepts in the play, in creative ways. Even more might be found, but I've drawn the line at those concepts which appear most prominent, which is a judgment call.

adhesion	age	ambition	animals/beasts	birds
colors	confinement	dogs	dreams	edge
fire	flaws	friend/enemy	gardening	good & evil
health/disease	honesty	horses	humors	knowledge & reason
magic	manner/manners	mice & rats	mirror	money
mouth	omen	poison	proof	secrecy
serpent	spy	star	stranger	take
talk	time	touch	trap	war

The individual pages include brief discussion and links to lines of dialogue, to explain the significance of the motif.

---

© 2014 Jeffrey Paul Jordan

All rights reserved. See the Copyright page for further information.