Symbols and Themes

Symbols such as objects, places, events, are used in poetry and novels in order to draw the attention of the reader or add to the complexity of the work. Symbols can be used to develop a characters view. However, symbols are unique and do not always mean the same thing in different pieces. The theme of a work of literature is revealed through the plot, characters, setting, point of view and symbols. The theme is what the work says about the subject. A literary work usually has more than one theme. Different individuals can interpret a piece of work differently, due to their own ideas and experiences and thus, develop different themes. At times, a theme can even be a question, such as an intellectual or moral dilemma.

 In the poem,” The Second Coming,” William Butler Yeats relates his apocalyptic vision of humanity in the years after World War I.  He uses the ‘Falcon’s gyre” to symbolize the cycles of history and how the present world is coming to an end. The “falcon” symbolizes the prey while the “falconer” symbolizes the predator. He says, “ the falcon can not hear the falconer,” which shows that after World War I the state of society was in complete chaos. He uses imagery of the “blood-dimmed tide” to symbolize how death and destruction is inevitable and can not be stopped. He says the  “Spiritus Mundi” which symbolizes the soul of the world, is “troubling his sight.” This shows that he has lost hope in human nature and predicts that doom is imminent.  He uses the image of a “shape with lion body and the head of a man” to show that even though the people may appear to be human, in reality they are lions that have no conscience that will kill ruthlessly like they did in World War I.

In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the theme of death is repeated throughout. Hamlet not only wants to revenge his father’s death, but also contemplates his own suicide constantly. Hamlet is plagued with these continuous thoughts of death and whether life exists after death and whether it is moral to commit suicide.  The theme of revenge is closely tied to the them of death, as Hamlet can not conclude his mission to revenge his father’s death until Claudius is dead.