Themes and Motifs in Hamlet (RSC)

THEMES

• Moral Corruption
• Revenge
• Appearance and reality
• Mortality

MOTIFS 

(Recurring element and patterns of imagery)

• Disease, rotting, decay
• Actors and theatre
• Ears and hearing

ACT 1, SCENE 2:

• Claudius and Gertrude try to persuade Hamlet to lift his spirits
• Alone on stage, Hamlet expresses his outrage at his mother's hasty marriage to his uncle

ACT 1, SCENE 5:

• The ghost of Hamlet's father tells him how he was murdered by Claudius

ACT 3, SCENE 2: 

• The Mousetrap play performance appears to reveal Claudius' guilt

ACT 3, SCENE 4:

• Hamlet confronts his mother about her disloyalty
• Hamlet accidentally murders Polonius

ACT 4, SCENE 3

• Claudius sends orders to England to put Hamlet to death

ACT 4, SCENE 5

• Laertes, furious at the death of his father and sister's madness, swears vengeance

ACT 5. SCENE 2

• Claudius' plotting results in death of most characters
• Fortinbras will assume the throne of Denmark

ACT 1, SCENE 5

• Hamlet promises his father to avenge his murder but laments the responsibility of it

ACT 2, SCENE 2

• Hamlet berates his own passivity and contrasts it with the passion of the first actor for long dead, legendary figures

ACT 3, SCENE 3

• Coming upon Claudius