28.06.

2017

THE RENAISSANCE is a vast cultural phenomenon that began in fifteenth-century Italy

with the recovery of classical Greek and Latin texts that had been lost to the Middle Ages. The
scholars who enthusiastically rediscovered these classical texts were motivated by an
educational and political ideal called (in Latin) humanitasthe idea that all of the capabilities
and virtues peculiar to human beings should be studied and developed to their furthest extent.
Renaissance humanism, as this movement is now called, generated a new interest in human
experience, and also an enormous optimism about the potential scope of human understanding.
Hamlets famous speech in Act II, What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how
infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an
angel, in apprehension how like a godthe beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!
(II.ii.293297) is directly based upon one of the major texts of the Italian humanists, Pico della
Mirandolas Oration on the Dignity of Man. For the humanists, the purpose of cultivating
reason was to lead to a better understanding of how to act, and their fondest hope was that the
coordination of action and understanding would lead to great benefits for society as a whole.

As the Renaissance spread to other countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
however, a more skeptical strain of humanism developed, stressing the limitations of human
understanding. For example, the sixteenth-century French humanist, Michel de Montaigne,
was no less interested in studying human experiences than the earlier humanists were, but he
maintained that the world of experience was a world of appearances, and that human beings
could never hope to see past those appearances into the realities that lie behind them. This is
the world in which Shakespeare places his characters. Hamlet is faced with the difficult task of
correcting an injustice that he can never have sufficient knowledge ofa dilemma that is by
no means unique, or even uncommon. And while Hamlet is fond of pointing out questions that
cannot be answered because they concern supernatural and metaphysical matters, the play as a
whole chiefly demonstrates the difficulty of knowing the truth about other peopletheir guilt
or innocence, their motivations, their feelings, their relative states of sanity or insanity. The
world of other people is a world of appearances, and Hamlet is, fundamentally, a play about
the difficulty of living in that world.

HAMLET (1603)

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF CERTAINTY

What separates Hamlet from other revenge plays (and maybe from every play written before
it) is that the action we expect to see, particularly from Hamlet himself, is continually
postponed while Hamlet tries to obtain more certain knowledge about what he is doing. This
play poses many questions that other plays would simply take for granted. Can we have
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certain knowledge about ghosts? Is the ghost what it appears to be, or is it really a misleading
fiend? Does the ghost have reliable knowledge about its own death, or is the ghost itself
deluded? Moving to more earthly matters: How can we know for certain the facts about a
crime that has no witnesses? Can Hamlet know the state of Claudiuss soul by watching his
behavior? If so, can he know the facts of what Claudius did by observing the state of his soul?
Can Claudius (or the audience) know the state of Hamlets mind by observing his behavior
and listening to his speech? Can we know whether our actions will have the consequences we
want them to have? Can we know anything about the afterlife?

Many people have seen Hamlet as a play about indecisiveness, and thus about Hamlets failure
to act appropriately. It might be more interesting to consider that the play shows us how many
uncertainties our lives are built upon, how many unknown quantities are taken for granted
when people act or when they evaluate one anothers actions.

THE COMPLEXITY OF ACTION

Directly related to the theme of certainty is the theme of action. How is it possible to take
reasonable, effective, purposeful action? In Hamlet, the question of how to act is affected not
only by rational considerations, such as the need for certainty, but also by emotional, ethical,
and psychological factors. Hamlet himself appears to distrust the idea that its even possible to
act in a controlled, purposeful way. When he does act, he prefers to do it blindly, recklessly,
and violently. The other characters obviously think much less about action in the abstract
than Hamlet does, and are therefore less troubled about the possibility of acting effectively.
They simply act as they feel is appropriate. But in some sense they prove that Hamlet is right,
because all of their actions miscarry. Claudius possesses himself of queen and crown through
bold action, but his conscience torments him, and he is beset by threats to his authority (and,
of course, he dies). Laertes resolves that nothing will distract him from acting out his revenge,
but he is easily influenced and manipulated into serving Claudiuss ends, and his poisoned
rapier is turned back upon himself.

THE MYSTERY OF DEATH

In the aftermath of his fathers murder, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and over the
course of the play he considers death from a great many perspectives. He ponders both the
spiritual aftermath of death, embodied in the ghost, and the physical remainders of the dead,
such as by Yoricks skull and the decaying corpses in the cemetery. Throughout, the idea of
death is closely tied to the themes of spirituality, truth, and uncertainty in that death may bring
the answers to Hamlets deepest questions, ending once and for all the problem of trying to
determine truth in an ambiguous world. And, since death is both the cause and the
consequence of revenge, it is intimately tied to the theme of revenge and justiceClaudiuss
murder of King Hamlet initiates Hamlets quest for revenge, and Claudiuss death is the end of
that quest.

The question of his own death plagues Hamlet as well, as he repeatedly contemplates whether
or not suicide is a morally legitimate action in an unbearably painful world. Hamlets grief and
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misery is such that he frequently longs for death to end his suffering, but he fears that if he
commits suicide, he will be consigned to eternal suffering in hell because of the Christian
religions prohibition of suicide. In his famous To be or not to be soliloquy (III.i), Hamlet
philosophically concludes that no one would choose to endure the pain of life if he or she were
not afraid of what will come after death, and that it is this fear which causes complex moral
considerations to interfere with the capacity for action.

THE NATION AS A DISEASED BODY

Everything is connected in Hamlet, including the welfare of the royal family and the health of
the state as a whole. The plays early scenes explore the sense of anxiety and dread that
surrounds the transfer of power from one ruler to the next. Throughout the play, characters
draw explicit connections between the moral legitimacy of a ruler and the health of the nation.
Denmark is frequently described as a physical body made ill by the moral corruption of
Claudius and Gertrude, and many observers interpret the presence of the ghost as a
supernatural omen indicating that [s]omething is rotten in the state of Denmark (I.iv.67).
The dead King Hamlet is portrayed as a strong, forthright ruler under whose guard the state
was in good health, while Claudius, a wicked politician, has corrupted and compromised
Denmark to satisfy his own appetites. At the end of the play, the rise to power of the upright
Fortinbras suggests that Denmark will be strengthened once again.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the texts major themes.

INCEST AND INCESTUOUS DESIRE

The motif of incest runs throughout the play and is frequently alluded to by Hamlet and the
ghost, most obviously in conversations about Gertrude and Claudius, the former brother-in-
law and sister-in-law who are now married. A subtle motif of incestuous desire can be found
in the relationship of Laertes and Ophelia, as Laertes sometimes speaks to his sister in
suggestively sexual terms and, at her funeral, leaps into her grave to hold her in his arms.
However, the strongest overtones of incestuous desire arise in the relationship of Hamlet and
Gertrude, in Hamlets fixation on Gertrudes sex life with Claudius and his preoccupation with
her in general.

MISOGYNY

Shattered by his mothers decision to marry Claudius so soon after her husbands death,
Hamlet becomes cynical about women in general, showing a particular obsession with what he
perceives to be a connection between female sexuality and moral corruption. This motif of
misogyny, or hatred of women, occurs sporadically throughout the play, but it is an important
inhibiting factor in Hamlets relationships with Ophelia and Gertrude. He urges Ophelia to go
to a nunnery rather than experience the corruptions of sexuality and exclaims of Gertrude,
Frailty, thy name is woman (I.ii.146).
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EARS AND HEARING

One facet of Hamlets exploration of the difficulty of attaining true knowledge is slipperiness
of language. Words are used to communicate ideas, but they can also be used to distort the
truth, manipulate other people, and serve as tools in corrupt quests for power. Claudius, the
shrewd politician, is the most obvious example of a man who manipulates words to enhance
his own power. The sinister uses of words are represented by images of ears and hearing, from
Claudiuss murder of the king by pouring poison into his ear to Hamlets claim to Horatio that
I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb (IV.vi.21). The poison poured in the
kings ear by Claudius is used by the ghost to symbolize the corrosive effect of Claudiuss
dishonesty on the health of Denmark. Declaring that the story that he was killed by a snake is
a lie, he says that the whole ear of Denmark is Rankly abused. . . . (I.v.3638).

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.

YORICKS SKULL

In Hamlet, physical objects are rarely used to represent thematic ideas. One important
exception is Yoricks skull, which Hamlet discovers in the graveyard in the first scene of Act
V. As Hamlet speaks to the skull and about the skull of the kings former jester, he fixates on
deaths inevitability and the disintegration of the body. He urges the skull to get you to my
ladys chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must comeno one
can avoid death (V.i.178179). He traces the skulls mouth and says, Here hung those lips
that I have kissed I know not how oft, indicating his fascination with the physical
consequences of death (V.i.174175). This latter idea is an important motif throughout the
play, as Hamlet frequently makes comments referring to every human bodys eventual decay,
noting that Polonius will be eaten by worms, that even kings are eaten by worms, and that dust
from the decayed body of Alexander the Great might be used to stop a hole in a beer barrel.

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MACBETH (1606)

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

THE CORRUPTING POWER OF UNCHECKED AMBITION

The main theme of Macbeththe destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by
moral constraintsfinds its most powerful expression in the plays two main characters.
Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds,
yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better judgment
and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play he descends into a kind
of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater
determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts.
One of Shakespeares most forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband
mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murders aftermath, but she is
eventually driven to distraction by the effect of Macbeths repeated bloodshed on her
conscience. In each case, ambitionhelped, of course, by the malign prophecies of the
witchesis what drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the play
suggests, is that once one decides to use violence to further ones quest for power, it is
difficult to stop. There are always potential threats to the throneBanquo, Fleance,
Macduffand it is always tempting to use violent means to dispose of them.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CRUELTY AND MASCULINITY

Characters in Macbeth frequently dwell on issues of gender. Lady Macbeth manipulates her
husband by questioning his manhood, wishes that she herself could be unsexed, and does
not contradict Macbeth when he says that a woman like her should give birth only to boys. In
the same manner that Lady Macbeth goads her husband on to murder, Macbeth provokes the
murderers he hires to kill Banquo by questioning their manhood. Such acts show that both
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth equate masculinity with naked aggression, and whenever they
converse about manhood, violence soon follows. Their understanding of manhood allows the
political order depicted in the play to descend into chaos.

At the same time, however, the audience cannot help noticing that women are also sources of
violence and evil. The witches prophecies spark Macbeths ambitions and then encourage his
violent behavior; Lady Macbeth provides the brains and the will behind her husbands
plotting; and the only divine being to appear is Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft.
Arguably, Macbeth traces the root of chaos and evil to women, which has led some critics to
argue that this is Shakespeares most misogynistic play. While the male characters are just as
violent and prone to evil as the women, the aggression of the female characters is more
striking because it goes against prevailing expectations of how women ought to behave. Lady
Macbeths behavior certainly shows that women can be as ambitious and cruel as men.
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Whether because of the constraints of her society or because she is not fearless enough to kill,
Lady Macbeth relies on deception and manipulation rather than violence to achieve her ends.

Ultimately, the play does put forth a revised and less destructive definition of manhood. In the
scene where Macduff learns of the murders of his wife and child, Malcolm consoles him by
encouraging him to take the news in manly fashion, by seeking revenge upon Macbeth.
Macduff shows the young heir apparent that he has a mistaken understanding of masculinity.
To Malcolms suggestion, Dispute it like a man, Macduff replies, I shall do so. But I must
also feel it as a man (4.3.221223). At the end of the play, Siward receives news of his sons
death rather complacently. Malcolm responds: Hes worth more sorrow [than you have
expressed] / And that Ill spend for him (5.11.1617). Malcolms comment shows that he has
learned the lesson Macduff gave him on the sentient nature of true masculinity. It also
suggests that, with Malcolms coronation, order will be restored to the Kingdom of Scotland.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KINGSHIP AND TYRANNY

In the play, Duncan is always referred to as a king, while Macbeth soon becomes known as
the tyrant. The difference between the two types of rulers seems to be expressed in a
conversation that occurs in Act 4, scene 3, when Macduff meets Malcolm in England. In order
to test Macduffs loyalty to Scotland, Malcolm pretends that he would make an even worse
king than Macbeth. He tells Macduff of his reproachable qualitiesamong them a thirst for
personal power and a violent temperament, both of which seem to characterize Macbeth
perfectly. On the other hand, Malcolm says, The king-becoming graces / [are] justice, verity,
temprance, stableness, / Bounty, perseverance, mercy, [and] lowliness (4.3.9293). The
model king, then, offers the kingdom an embodiment of order and justice, but also comfort
and affection. Under him, subjects are rewarded according to their merits, as when Duncan
makes Macbeth thane of Cawdor after Macbeths victory over the invaders. Most important,
the king must be loyal to Scotland above his own interests. Macbeth, by contrast, brings only
chaos to Scotlandsymbolized in the bad weather and bizarre supernatural eventsand
offers no real justice, only a habit of capriciously murdering those he sees as a threat. As the
embodiment of tyranny, he must be overcome by Malcolm so that Scotland can have a true
king once more.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the texts major themes.

HALLUCINATIONS

Visions and hallucinations recur throughout the play and serve as reminders of Macbeth and
Lady Macbeths joint culpability for the growing body count. When he is about to kill
Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air. Covered with blood and pointed toward the
kings chamber, the dagger represents the bloody course on which Macbeth is about to
6
embark. Later, he sees Banquos ghost sitting in a chair at a feast, pricking his conscience by
mutely reminding him that he murdered his former friend. The seemingly hardheaded Lady
Macbeth also eventually gives way to visions, as she sleepwalks and believes that her hands
are stained with blood that cannot be washed away by any amount of water. In each case, it is
ambiguous whether the vision is real or purely hallucinatory; but, in both cases, the Macbeths
read them uniformly as supernatural signs of their guilt.

VIOLENCE

Macbeth is a famously violent play. Interestingly, most of the killings take place offstage, but
throughout the play the characters provide the audience with gory descriptions of the carnage,
from the opening scene where the captain describes Macbeth and Banquo wading in blood on
the battlefield, to the endless references to the bloodstained hands of Macbeth and his wife.
The action is bookended by a pair of bloody battles: in the first, Macbeth defeats the invaders;
in the second, he is slain and beheaded by Macduff. In between is a series of murders: Duncan,
Duncans chamberlains, Banquo, Lady Macduff, and Macduffs son all come to bloody ends.
By the end of the action, blood seems to be everywhere.

PROPHECY

Prophecy sets Macbeths plot in motionnamely, the witches prophecy that Macbeth will
become first thane of Cawdor and then king. The weird sisters make a number of other
prophecies: they tell us that Banquos heirs will be kings, that Macbeth should beware
Macduff, that Macbeth is safe till Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane, and that no man born of
woman can harm Macbeth. Save for the prophecy about Banquos heirs, all of these
predictions are fulfilled within the course of the play. Still, it is left deliberately ambiguous
whether some of them are self-fulfillingfor example, whether Macbeth wills himself to be
king or is fated to be king. Additionally, as the Birnam Wood and born of woman
prophecies make clear, the prophecies must be interpreted as riddles, since they do not always
mean what they seem to mean.

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.

BLOOD

Blood is everywhere in Macbeth, beginning with the opening battle between the Scots and the
Norwegian invaders, which is described in harrowing terms by the wounded captain in Act 1,
scene 2. Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey, blood
comes to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel that their crimes have stained them in a
way that cannot be washed clean. Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood / Clean
from my hand? Macbeth cries after he has killed Duncan, even as his wife scolds him and
says that a little water will do the job (2.2.5859). Later, though, she comes to share his
horrified sense of being stained: Out, damned spot; out, I say . . . who would have thought the
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old man to have had so much blood in him? she asks as she wanders through the halls of their
castle near the close of the play (5.1.3034). Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a
permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one that hounds them
to their graves.

THE WEATHER

As in other Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeths grotesque murder spree is accompanied by a

number of unnatural occurrences in the natural realm. From the thunder and lightning that
accompany the witches appearances to the terrible storms that rage on the night of Duncans
murder, these violations of the natural order reflect corruption in the moral and political
orders.

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM
Written in the mid-1590s, probably shortly before Shakespeare turned to Romeo and Juliet, A
Midsummer Nights Dream is one of his strangest and most delightful creations, and it marks a
departure from his earlier works and from others of the English Renaissance. The play
demonstrates both the extent of Shakespeares learning and the expansiveness of his
imagination. The range of references in the play is among its most extraordinary attributes:
Shakespeare draws on sources as various as Greek mythology (Theseus, for instance, is
loosely based on the Greek hero of the same name, and the play is peppered with references to
Greek gods and goddesses); English country fairy lore (the character of Puck, or Robin
Goodfellow, was a popular figure in sixteenth-century stories); and the theatrical practices of
Shakespeares London (the craftsmens play refers to and parodies many conventions of
English Renaissance theater, such as men playing the roles of women). Further, many of the
characters are drawn from diverse texts: Titania comes from Ovids Metamorphoses, and
Oberon may have been taken from the medieval romance Huan of Bordeaux, translated by
Lord Berners in the mid-1530s. Unlike the plots of many of Shakespeares plays, however, the
story in A Midsummer Nights Dream seems not to have been drawn from any particular
source but rather to be the original product of the playwrights imagination.

Themes, Symbols, & Motifs

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

LOVES DIFFICULTY

The course of true love never did run smooth, comments Lysander, articulating one of A
Midsummer Nights Dreams most important themesthat of the difficulty of love (I.i.134).
Though most of the conflict in the play stems from the troubles of romance, and though the
play involves a number of romantic elements, it is not truly a love story; it distances the
audience from the emotions of the characters in order to poke fun at the torments and
afflictions that those in love suffer. The tone of the play is so lighthearted that the audience
never doubts that things will end happily, and it is therefore free to enjoy the comedy without
being caught up in the tension of an uncertain outcome.

The theme of loves difficulty is often explored through the motif of love out of balancethat
is, romantic situations in which a disparity or inequality interferes with the harmony of a
relationship. The prime instance of this imbalance is the asymmetrical love among the four
young Athenians: Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius,
and Demetrius loves Hermia instead of Helenaa simple numeric imbalance in which two
men love the same woman, leaving one woman with too many suitors and one with too few.
The play has strong potential for a traditional outcome, and the plot is in many ways based on
a quest for internal balance; that is, when the lovers tangle resolves itself into symmetrical
pairings, the traditional happy ending will have been achieved. Somewhat similarly, in the

9
relationship between Titania and Oberon, an imbalance arises out of the fact that Oberons
coveting of Titanias Indian boy outweighs his love for her. Later, Titanias passion for the
ass-headed Bottom represents an imbalance of appearance and nature: Titania is beautiful and
graceful, while Bottom is clumsy and grotesque.

MAGIC

The fairies magic, which brings about many of the most bizarre and hilarious situations in the
play, is another element central to the fantastic atmosphere of A Midsummer Nights Dream.
Shakespeare uses magic both to embody the almost supernatural power of love (symbolized
by the love potion) and to create a surreal world. Although the misuse of magic causes chaos,
as when Puckmistakenly applies the love potion to Lysanders eyelids, magic ultimately
resolves the plays tensions by restoring love to balance among the quartet of Athenian youths.
Additionally, the ease with which Puck uses magic to his own ends, as when he reshapes
Bottoms head into that of an ass and recreates the voices of Lysander and Demetrius, stands
in contrast to the laboriousness and gracelessness of the craftsmens attempt to stage their
play.

DREAMS

As the title suggests, dreams are an important theme in A Midsummer Nights Dream; they are
linked to the bizarre, magical mishaps in the forest. Hippolytas first words in the play
evidence the prevalence of dreams (Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, / Four
nights will quickly dream away the time), and various characters mention dreams throughout
(I.i.78). The theme of dreaming recurs predominantly when characters attempt to explain
bizarre events in which these characters are involved: I have had a dream, past the wit of man
to say what / dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about texpound this dream, Bottom
says, unable to fathom the magical happenings that have affected him as anything but the
result of slumber.

Shakespeare is also interested in the actual workings of dreams, in how events occur without
explanation, time loses its normal sense of flow, and the impossible occurs as a matter of
course; he seeks to recreate this environment in the play through the intervention of the fairies
in the magical forest. At the end of the play, Puck extends the idea of dreams to the audience
members themselves, saying that, if they have been offended by the play, they should
remember it as nothing more than a dream. This sense of illusion and gauzy fragility is crucial
to the atmosphere of A Midsummer Nights Dream, as it helps render the play a fantastical
experience rather than a heavy drama.

Motifs

CONTRAST

The idea of contrast is the basic building block of A Midsummer Nights Dream. The entire
play is constructed around groups of opposites and doubles. Nearly every characteristic
presented in the play has an opposite: Helena is tall, Hermia is short; Puck plays pranks,
10
Bottom is the victim of pranks; Titania is beautiful, Bottom is grotesque. Further, the three
main groups of characters (who are developed from sources as varied as Greek mythology,
English folklore, and classical literature) are designed to contrast powerfully with one another:
the fairies are graceful and magical, while the craftsmen are clumsy and earthy; the craftsmen
are merry, while the lovers are overly serious. Contrast serves as the defining visual
characteristic of A Midsummer Nights Dream, with the plays most indelible image being that
of the beautiful, delicate Titania weaving flowers into the hair of the ass-headed Bottom. It
seems impossible to imagine two figures less compatible with each other. The juxtaposition of
extraordinary differences is the most important characteristic of the plays surreal atmosphere
and is thus perhaps the plays central motif; there is no scene in which extraordinary contrast
is not present.

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.

THESEUS AND HIPPOLYTA

Theseus and Hippolyta bookend A Midsummer Nights Dream,appearing in the daylight at

both the beginning and the end of the plays main action. They disappear, however, for the
duration of the action, leaving in the middle of Act I, scene i and not reappearing until Act IV,
as the sun is coming up to end the magical night in the forest. Shakespeare uses Theseus and
Hippolyta, the ruler of Athens and his warrior bride, to represent order and stability, to
contrast with the uncertainty, instability, and darkness of most of the play. Whereas an
important element of the dream realm is that one is not in control of ones environment,
Theseus and Hippolyta are always entirely in control of theirs. Their reappearance in the
daylight of Act IV to hear Theseuss hounds signifies the end of the dream state of the
previous night and a return to rationality.

THE LOVE POTION

The love potion is made from the juice of a flower that was struck with one of Cupids
misfired arrows; it is used by the fairies to wreak romantic havoc throughout Acts II, III, and
IV. Because the meddling fairies are careless with the love potion, the situation of the young
Athenian lovers becomes increasingly chaotic and confusing (Demetrius and Lysander are
magically compelled to transfer their love from Hermia to Helena), and Titania is hilariously
humiliated (she is magically compelled to fall deeply in love with the ass-headed Bottom).
The love potion thus becomes a symbol of the unreasoning, fickle, erratic, and undeniably
powerful nature of love, which can lead to inexplicable and bizarre behavior and cannot be
resisted.

THE CRAFTSMENS PLAY

The play-within-a-play that takes up most of Act V, scene i is used to represent, in condensed
form, many of the important ideas and themes of the main plot. Because the craftsmen are
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such bumbling actors, their performance satirizes the melodramatic Athenian lovers and gives
the play a purely joyful, comedic ending. Pyramus and Thisbe face parental disapproval in the
play-within-a-play, just as Hermia and Lysander do; the theme of romantic confusion
enhanced by the darkness of night is rehashed, as Pyramus mistakenly believes that Thisbe has
been killed by the lion, just as the Athenian lovers experience intense misery because of the
mix-ups caused by the fairies meddling. The craftsmens play is, therefore, a kind of symbol
for A Midsummer Nights Dream itself: a story involving powerful emotions that is made
hilarious by its comical presentation.

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ROMEO AND JULIET
Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

THE FORCEFULNESS OF LOVE

Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story in the English literary tradition. Love is
naturally the plays dominant and most important theme. The play focuses on romantic love,
specifically the intense passion that springs up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet.
In Romeo and Juliet, love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other
values, loyalties, and emotions. In the course of the play, the young lovers are driven to defy
their entire social world: families (Deny thy father and refuse thy name, Juliet asks, Or if
thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And Ill no longer be a Capulet); friends (Romeo
abandons Mercutio and Benvolio after the feast in order to go to Juliets garden); and ruler
(Romeo returns to Verona for Juliets sake after being exiled by the Prince on pain of death in
2.1.7678). Love is the overriding theme of the play, but a reader should always remember
that Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a prettied-up, dainty version of the emotion, the
kind that bad poets write about, and whose bad poetry Romeo reads while pining for Rosaline.
Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults
them against their world, and, at times, against themselves.

The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is described, or, more accurately, the
way descriptions of it so consistently fail to capture its entirety. At times love is described in
the terms of religion, as in the fourteen lines when Romeo and Juliet first meet. At others it is
described as a sort of magic: Alike bewitchd by the charm of looks (2.Prologue.6). Juliet,
perhaps, most perfectly describes her love for Romeo by refusing to describe it: But my true
love is grown to such excess / I cannot sum up some of half my wealth (3.1.3334). Love, in
other words, resists any single metaphor because it is too powerful to be so easily contained or
understood.

Romeo and Juliet does not make a specific moral statement about the relationships between
love and society, religion, and family; rather, it portrays the chaos and passion of being in
love, combining images of love, violence, death, religion, and family in an impressionistic
rush leading to the plays tragic conclusion.

LOVE AS A CAUSE OF VIOLENCE

The themes of death and violence permeate Romeo and Juliet, and they are always connected
to passion, whether that passion is love or hate. The connection between hate, violence, and
death seems obvious. But the connection between love and violence requires further
investigation.

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Love, in Romeo and Juliet, is a grand passion, and as such it is blinding; it can overwhelm a
person as powerfully and completely as hate can. The passionate love between Romeo and
Juliet is linked from the moment of its inception with death: Tybalt notices that Romeo has
crashed the feast and determines to kill him just as Romeo catches sight of Juliet and falls
instantly in love with her. From that point on, love seems to push the lovers closer to love and
violence, not farther from it. Romeo and Juliet are plagued with thoughts of suicide, and a
willingness to experience it: in Act 3, scene 3, Romeo brandishes a knife in Friar Lawrences
cell and threatens to kill himself after he has been banished from Verona and his love. Juliet
also pulls a knife in order to take her own life in Friar Lawrences presence just three scenes
later. After Capulet decides that Juliet will marry Paris, Juliet says, If all else fail, myself
have power to die (3.5.242). Finally, each imagines that the other looks dead the morning
after their first, and only, sexual experience (Methinks I see thee, Juliet says, . . . as one
dead in the bottom of a tomb (3.5.5556). This theme continues until its inevitable
conclusion: double suicide. This tragic choice is the highest, most potent expression of love
that Romeo and Juliet can make. It is only through death that they can preserve their love, and
their love is so profound that they are willing to end their lives in its defense. In the play, love
emerges as an amoral thing, leading as much to destruction as to happiness. But in its extreme
passion, the love that Romeo and Juliet experience also appears so exquisitely beautiful that
few would want, or be able, to resist its power.

THE INDIVIDUAL VERSUS SOCIETY

Much of Romeo and Juliet involves the lovers struggles against public and social institutions
that either explicitly or implicitly oppose the existence of their love. Such structures range
from the concrete to the abstract: families and the placement of familial power in the father;
law and the desire for public order; religion; and the social importance placed on masculine
honor. These institutions often come into conflict with each other. The importance of honor,
for example, time and again results in brawls that disturb the public peace.

Though they do not always work in concert, each of these societal institutions in some way
present obstacles for Romeo and Juliet. The enmity between their families, coupled with the
emphasis placed on loyalty and honor to kin, combine to create a profound conflict for Romeo
and Juliet, who must rebel against their heritages. Further, the patriarchal power structure
inherent in Renaissance families, wherein the father controls the action of all other family
members, particularly women, places Juliet in an extremely vulnerable position. Her heart, in
her familys mind, is not hers to give. The law and the emphasis on social civility demands
terms of conduct with which the blind passion of love cannot comply. Religion similarly
demands priorities that Romeo and Juliet cannot abide by because of the intensity of their
love. Though in most situations the lovers uphold the traditions of Christianity (they wait to
marry before consummating their love), their love is so powerful that they begin to think of
each other in blasphemous terms. For example, Juliet calls Romeo the god of my idolatry,
elevating Romeo to level of God (2.1.156). The couples final act of suicide is likewise un-
Christian. The maintenance of masculine honor forces Romeo to commit actions he would

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prefer to avoid. But the social emphasis placed on masculine honor is so profound that Romeo
cannot simply ignore them.

It is possible to see Romeo and Juliet as a battle between the responsibilities and actions
demanded by social institutions and those demanded by the private desires of the individual.
Romeo and Juliets appreciation of night, with its darkness and privacy, and their renunciation
of their names, with its attendant loss of obligation, make sense in the context of individuals
who wish to escape the public world. But the lovers cannot stop the night from becoming day.
And Romeo cannot cease being a Montague simply because he wants to; the rest of the world
will not let him. The lovers suicides can be understood as the ultimate night, the ultimate
privacy.

THE INEVITABILITY OF FATE

In its first address to the audience, the Chorus states that Romeo and Juliet are star-
crossedthat is to say that fate (a power often vested in the movements of the stars) controls
them (Prologue.6). This sense of fate permeates the play, and not just for the audience. The
characters also are quite aware of it: Romeo and Juliet constantly see omens. When Romeo
believes that Juliet is dead, he cries out, Then I defy you, stars, completing the idea that the
love between Romeo and Juliet is in opposition to the decrees of destiny (5.1.24). Of course,
Romeos defiance itself plays into the hands of fate, and his determination to spend eternity
with Juliet results in their deaths. The mechanism of fate works in all of the events
surrounding the lovers: the feud between their families (it is worth noting that this hatred is
never explained; rather, the reader must accept it as an undeniable aspect of the world of the
play); the horrible series of accidents that ruin Friar Lawrences seemingly well-intentioned
plans at the end of the play; and the tragic timing of Romeos suicide and Juliets awakening.
These events are not mere coincidences, but rather manifestations of fate that help bring about
the unavoidable outcome of the young lovers deaths.

The concept of fate described above is the most commonly accepted interpretation. There are
other possible readings of fate in the play: as a force determined by the powerful social
institutions that influence Romeo and Juliets choices, as well as fate as a force that emerges
from Romeo and Juliets very personalities.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the texts major themes.

LIGHT/DARK IMAGERY

One of the plays most consistent visual motifs is the contrast between light and dark, often in
terms of night/day imagery. This contrast is not given a particular metaphoric meaninglight
is not always good, and dark is not always evil. On the contrary, light and dark are generally
used to provide a sensory contrast and to hint at opposed alternatives. One of the more
important instances of this motif is Romeos lengthy meditation on the sun and the moon
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during the balcony scene, in which Juliet, metaphorically described as the sun, is seen as
banishing the envious moon and transforming the night into day (2.1.46). A similar blurring
of night and day occurs in the early morning hours after the lovers only night together.
Romeo, forced to leave for exile in the morning, and Juliet, not wanting him to leave her
room, both try to pretend that it is still night, and that the light is actually darkness: More
light and light, more dark and dark our woes (3.5.36).

OPPOSITE POINTS OF VIEW

Shakespeare includes numerous speeches and scenes in Romeo and Juliet that hint at
alternative ways to evaluate the play. Shakespeare uses two main devices in this regard:
Mercutio and servants. Mercutio consistently skewers the viewpoints of all the other
characters in play: he sees Romeos devotion to love as a sort of blindness that robs Romeo
from himself; similarly, he sees Tybalts devotion to honor as blind and stupid. His punning
and the Queen Mab speech can be interpreted as undercutting virtually every passion evident
in the play. Mercutio serves as a critic of the delusions of righteousness and grandeur held by
the characters around him.

Where Mercutio is a nobleman who openly criticizes other nobles, the views offered by
servants in the play are less explicit. There is the Nurse who lost her baby and husband, the
servant Peter who cannot read, the musicians who care about their lost wages and their
lunches, and the Apothecary who cannot afford to make the moral choice, the lower classes
present a second tragic world to counter that of the nobility. The nobles world is full of grand
tragic gestures. The servants world, in contrast, is characterized by simple needs, and early
deaths brought about by disease and poverty rather than dueling and grand passions. Where
the nobility almost seem to revel in their capacity for drama, the servants lives are such that
they cannot afford tragedy of the epic kind.

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.

POISON

In his first appearance, in Act 2, scene 2, Friar Lawrence remarks that every plant, herb, and
stone has its own special properties, and that nothing exists in nature that cannot be put to both
good and bad uses. Thus, poison is not intrinsically evil, but is instead a natural substance
made lethal by human hands. Friar Lawrences words prove true over the course of the play.
The sleeping potion he gives Juliet is concocted to cause the appearance of death, not death
itself, but through circumstances beyond the Friars control, the potion does bring about a fatal
result: Romeos suicide. As this example shows, human beings tend to cause death even
without intending to. Similarly, Romeo suggests that society is to blame for the apothecarys
criminal selling of poison, because while there are laws prohiting the Apothecary from selling
poison, there are no laws that would help the apothecary make money. Poison symbolizes

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human societys tendency to poison good things and make them fatal, just as the pointless
Capulet-Montague feud turns Romeo and Juliets love to poison. After all, unlike many of the
other tragedies, this play does not have an evil villain, but rather people whose good qualities
are turned to poison by the world in which they live.

THUMB-BITING

In Act 1, scene 1, the buffoonish Samson begins a brawl between the Montagues and Capulets
by flicking his thumbnail from behind his upper teeth, an insulting gesture known as biting the
thumb. He engages in this juvenile and vulgar display because he wants to get into a fight with
the Montagues but doesnt want to be accused of starting the fight by making an explicit
insult. Because of his timidity, he settles for being annoying rather than challenging. The
thumb-biting, as an essentially meaningless gesture, represents the foolishness of the entire
Capulet/Montague feud and the stupidity of violence in general.

QUEEN MAB

In Act 1, scene 4, Mercutio delivers a dazzling speech about the fairy Queen Mab, who rides
through the night on her tiny wagon bringing dreams to sleepers. One of the most noteworthy
aspects of Queen Mabs ride is that the dreams she brings generally do not bring out the best
sides of the dreamers, but instead serve to confirm them in whatever vices they are addicted
tofor example, greed, violence, or lust. Another important aspect of Mercutios description
of Queen Mab is that it is complete nonsense, albeit vivid and highly colorful. Nobody
believes in a fairy pulled about by a small grey-coated gnat whipped with a crickets bone
(1.4.65). Finally, it is worth noting that the description of Mab and her carriage goes to
extravagant lengths to emphasize how tiny and insubstantial she and her accoutrements are.
Queen Mab and her carriage do not merely symbolize the dreams of sleepers, they also
symbolize the power of waking fantasies, daydreams, and desires. Through the Queen Mab
imagery, Mercutio suggests that all desires and fantasies are as nonsensical and fragile as Mab,
and that they are basically corrupting. This point of view contrasts starkly with that of Romeo
and Juliet, who see their love as real and ennobling.

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