Symbols and Allusions

Symbol

Flowers
In Act IV scene v, when Ophelia begins to lose her mind, she starts handing flowers out to everyone. She speaks of the symbolic meaning behind each flower as she hands them out. 

• Fennel: flattery and deceit 
• Columbines: infidelity 
• Rue: sorrow and repentance
• Daisy: disguise or conceal 
• Violets: faithfulness 

It is significant to note who she hands each flower to. She hands the fennel and columbines off to King Claudius. This represents the lies and betrayal Claudius has committed throughout the whole play. To Gertrude as well as herself, she hands the rue and states, "You must wear your rue with a difference." This is told to Gertrude in order to distinguish the difference in the two meanings between herself and the queen. For Gertrude, she meant the rue to symbolize repentance (for the wrongdoings of her hasty marriage to her husband's brother) and sorrow for herself (Hamlet denied ever loving her and her father is dead leaving her with her brother, who was off in Paris). Daisies went to the queen as well to symbolize her disguised love for Claudius. The violets were handed to an "imaginary" Hamlet, for her faith in him has "withered all when my father died." She was no longer able to trust him nor love him again.

Allusions
In Act IV, scene ii, when Rosencrantz is questioning Hamlet where he put Polonius' body, Hamlet replies with, "Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin." This is a biblical allusion to Genesis 3:19. Here, Shakespeare states that Polonius is back mixed with the earth where it was originally formed.

"By the sweat of your brow

    you will eat your food

until you return to the ground,

    since from it you were taken;

for dust you are

 and to dust you will return.”

xoxo, Kara