Generally speaking, a symbol is anything that represents something else. In dramatic literature, symbolism is the use of imagery to highlight deep meanings and emotions for an audience. Two common symbols used in literature are light and darkness. William Shakespeare uses both symbols throughout the play Hamlet.

Traditionally, light denotes positivity, goodness, and hope. Darkness denotes negativity, evil, and death. Shakespeare’s treatment of these symbols in Hamlet consists of either the setting of scenes as a foretelling of good or evil in the play or indications as to good or evil dwelling in his characters. Hamlet is a study of whether people are inherently good or evil.

For example, at the beginning of the play, the Ghost of Hamlet’s father appears to Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. The apparition appears at night under cover of darkness, but does not speak and disappears. Shakespeare sets a scene where the audience knows some evil lurks. When the Ghost subsequently approaches once again, it is also at night in darkness:

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen,

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead waste and middle of the night,

Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,

Arm'd at all points exactly, cap-à-pé,

Appears before them . . .

When the Ghost appears to Hamlet telling him about his father’s murder, it is also in the darkness of night. However, when the rooster crows signaling dawn and the coming of sunlight, the Ghost hastens away. The spirit is not compatible with goodness and light. The audience is aware that perhaps the Ghost cannot be trusted and relates the plot of revenge to the apparition as a creature of darkness and evil.

An example of how the character Claudius is portrayed as a creature of darkness is found in act III, when Hamlet uses the play within the play to witness the reaction of Claudius hoping to determine if he is indeed guilty of murder. When the scene of the arranged play reaches the part where the king is poisoned, Claudius panics, runs from the hall, and confirms his guilt in Hamlet’s mind. Claudius is sorry for his sin and as he leaves the theater yells:

King. Give me some light: away!

All. Lights, lights, lights!

He seeks repentance for his dark deed by calling for the symbolic goodness of light. The audience can easily recognize the stark contrast in Claudius’ prayer for light since he is a creature of darkness who murdered King Hamlet in the nighttime. Shakespeare shows his readers through the contrast of light and darkness that light is a symbol of truth. Whatever is unseen in the darkness, like the character of the evil Claudius, becomes evident in the daylight when the truth is revealed.