symbols

• In Hamlet, physical objects are rarely used to represent thematic ideas. one exception is yurok's skull
• As Hamlet speaks to the skull and about the skull of the king’s former jester, he fixates on death’s inevitability and the disintegration of the body. He urges the skull to “get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come”—no one can avoid death (V.i.178–179). He traces the skull’s mouth and says, “Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft,” indicating his fascination with the physical consequences of death (V.i.174–175). 
• the skull represents hamlet's view of life,as Hamlet frequently makes comments referring to every human body’s eventual decay, noting that Polonius will be eaten by worms, that even kings are eaten by worms, and that dust from the decayed body of Alexander the Great might be used to stop a hole in a beer barrel.
• The skull also symbolizes the idea that all people die, regardless of their social status or accomplishments. The skull belonged to Yorick, who was once a court jester but now lies dead and forgotten. This contrast between the high-ranking members of society and the lowly jester emphasizes the equality of death. It reminds us that no matter what our position in life may be, we will eventually meet the same fate as everyone else.
• The skull also serves as a reminder of mortality and the transience of earthly things. When Hamlet sees it, he reflects on its past use and the fact that it has been transformed into something different than when it was alive. In other words, just like the skull, everything in life is temporary and subject to change.
• The skull also highlights the theme of corruption and decay. Hamlet notes that the skull is "so pallid and so wan" (V.i.182), suggesting that it has lost much of its vitality since it was alive. This image underscores the idea that nothing lasts forever and that everything eventually decays and loses its value.
• the skull was found in act 5
• When Ophelia begins to act mad in Act IV scene v, she gives flowers to Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, and keeps some for herself. She names each flower as she hands it out and makes it clear they have specific significance.
• Ophelia gives  Laertes rosemary and pansies for “remembrance” and “thoughts,” respectively
• Ophelia does not state the significance behind the rest of her flowers, but they would have had cultural connotations attached to them. 
• Ophelia gives Gertrude fennel and columbines to represent gertrude's adultery. 
• Ophelia gives Claudius and herself rue for bitterness and repentance. She also gives Claudius a daisy for innocence and love, showing her innocence is no longer with her, and neither is Hamlet.
• Finally, she says she would have brought violets, but they all wilted when her father died. Violets could represent faithfulness, meaning she suggests the faith or goodness of Denmark was corrupted with Polonius’s murder. Conversely, violets could indicate her own virtue and modesty, implying that with Polonius’s death, Ophelia has lost all adherence to the social norms of her day. 
• Just two scenes later, Ophelia drowns bedecked in flowers as she would have been at her wedding or her funeral. the flowers she wears, just like the flowers she gives away, are a reproach as well as a symbol of innocence. They heighten the tragedy of the play by reminding the other characters and the audience that Ophelia should have been a young girl, perhaps a bride, and certainly celebrated in death. They are a poignant reminder of all that is taken from her, and from Denmark, by the delay and perversion of justice.
• Ophelia's flowers are used to accuse the royal court of various flaws. Their meanings include remembrance, thoughts, flattery, foolishness, regret, and innocence.
• Ophelia’s flowers, then, symbolize her many-faceted personality and desires, which have been stripped, squashed, and corrupted by society’s expectations. Ophelia’s imaginary flowers tie in with the thematic representation of women’s issues throughout the play: Ophelia has had to change so much to survive in the world of men that she’s literally driven herself mad.
• It is significant that later on in the play, after her suicide by drowning, Ophelia’s body is found covered in “fantastic garlands” of flowers. In her final moments, Ophelia chooses to ring herself in emblems of all that she was and all that she could have been, had the world around her not shrunken and shriveled her until hardly anything was left
• The Ghost symbolizes death in the sense that his arrival spurs the deaths of several characters. The Ghost could also symbolize madness, since Horatio warns Hamlet that speaking with the Ghost might drive him mad, and Hamlet ultimately does exhibit signs of insanity by the end of the play.
• Ghost to convey the complexity of obligation, revenge, murder, and fate, and to connect to his audience by causing them to feel the same weight of indecision that plagues Hamlet.