In this earlier post, I surveyed the use of three symbols in Hamlet. I complete that survey by adding animals and spirits/angels in this post.
Animals: These symbols are typically associated with judgment, blessings or punishments.
Note these examples from the play:
- “a beast, that wants discourse of reason, / Would have mourn’d longer…” – Hamlet on his mother
- “Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, / With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts” – the ghost on his brother, Claudius
- “What is a man, / If his chief good and market of his time / Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.” – Hamlet on himself
By comparing his mother unfavorably to a beast, Hamlet judges her guilty. The ghost does the same by equating Claudius with a beast. Hamlet finds himself wanting by comparing himself unfavorably to a beast as well. The beast is a sign of punishment.
Angels/Spirits: Obviously, we have to start with the ghost. Here are descriptions of the ghost that use the word.
- “you spirits oft walk in death…” – Horatio to the ghost
- “at [the rooster’s] warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies to his confine.” – Horatio on when ghosts appear
- “This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.” – Horatio on telling Hamlet about the ghost
So the spirit is a symbol of “the time [being] out of joint.” The past is haunting the present.
Angels are a connected and opposed symbol. They represent eternal protection from unsettling forces like the ghost.
- “Angels and ministers of grace defend us!” – Hamlet upon encountering the ghost
- “What a piece of work is a man!…in action how like an angel!” – Hamlet on humanity’s greatness
- “I tell thee, churlish priest, / A ministering angel shall my sister be, / When thou liest howling.” – Laertes on his sister Ophelia
- “Good night sweet prince: / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!” – Horatio to Hamlet after he dies
The ghost represents a damned future, angels a protected one. Both signify eternity, an answer to the question:
Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 2
To which we might reply, we know the ghost is either a devil or the spirit of his father returned from purgatory. That would confirm a supernatural reality. The invocation of angels indicates that this metaphysical reality is beneficial, not just threatening.
Probably the greatest irony is that Hamlet is the one who connects men to angels. If angels minister and protect, most of the play’s characters fail to live up to their calling.
Experiments in Criticism 