Yorick's Skull Symbol
Hamlet discovers Yorick's skull in the graveyard as gravediggers are digging a grave for Ophelia. He speaks to the skull as if it is still the person - in this case, a former court jester he remembers from his childhood. The skull is a symbol of the inevitability of death, and the way in which everyone eventually ends up.
Decaying of the Body Motif
Hamlet is obsessed with the decay of the human body after death and makes constant references to it. He states that even kings are eaten by worms, and that dust from the body of Alexander the Great is probably being used as the stopper in a beer barrel. Hamlet finds death and decomposition to be a great equalizer.
Incest Motif
The motif of incest is both obvious, and subtle, in the film; the obvious issue of incest is the marriage between Claudius and his deceased brother's wife, Gertrude. The subtle suggestion of incest is between Laertes and Ophelia; Laertes seems unnaturally sexually interested in his sister, making sexual references to her in their conversations, preventing her from having a relationship with Hamlet, whom she loves, and leaping into her grave at her funeral so that he can hold her in his arms one last time.
There is also suggestion of an Oedipal relationship between Gertrude and Hamlet. He is preoccupied with her sex life with Claudius and orders her to stop sleeping with him.
Anti Women Sentiment Motif
Hamlet becomes extremely cynical about women in general, his mother in particular, after he feels that her marriage to Claudius was a betrayal of both his father and himself. He begins to believe that women are corrupt and that they use their sexuality to conspire against men. He also orders Ophelia to go to a nunnery; he does not trust her to use her sexuality without hurting people with it.
The film also shows how little power women had in their own lives; Ophelia is ordered by not only her father, but her brother, to stop seeing Hamlet, and she has no choice to comply even though doing so drives her insane with lovesickness and grief.
Ears Symbol
In the film, ears are a symbol of dishonesty; Claudius murders the King by pouring poison into his ear and this scene is recreated in the play that Hamlet commissions in order to let Claudius know that he is aware that he murdered his father. The poison poured into his ear also symbolizes the poisonous effect of dishonesty, and this is shown to be negatively affecting the entire country; Hamlet declares that he was killed and that "the whole ear of Denmark" is abused by this mis-use of power.
