Act III
Symbols
Lee Sims
"...for in that sleep of death what dreams may come..." (III.i line 74) Dreams are often referred to throughout "Hamlet" as something that is either a shadow or accompanied by death; this idea of dreams never being "real" is very important because Hamlet's dreams symbolize his pure and naive hopes for the world. Hamlet sees the world as a prison, especially Denmark, and has hopes and aspirations that one day, everything will turn out okay, but, much like his dreams, it never will.
"He kills Polonius by thrusting a rapier through the arras," Polonius uses the arras/tapestry to hide himself and eavesdrop on the Queen and Hamlet but only ends up being killed by Hamlet. The tapestry that is used to conceal Polonius could symbolize the consistently present theme that not everything is what it seems.
I agree with the dreams, but I have a little more too. I think it goes with this theme of uncertainty, in everything. Dreams themselves are uncertain, and so is death. So through this they are connected and our dreams become something similar to death, as uncertain and frightening as the eternal.
ReplyDeletexoxo, Cantore Slug
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