PLANTS AND DEATH: LOSS AND GRIEF AS EXPRESSED THROUGH FLOWERS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (BASED ON SHAKESPEARE)
This study offers a concise linguopoetic account of floral and botanical imagery in the representation of death and loss in English
literature, with primary focus on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet. Using comparative–analytical methods, it
examines the poetic function of floral symbols, their cultural and intertextual bases, and their aesthetic roles in dramatic structure.
Case analyses include Ophelia’s symbolic distribution of flowers in Hamlet, Desdemona’s “Willow Song” in Othello, and the
coupling of nuptial and funerary motifs in Romeo and Juliet, where floral signs articulate grief, memory, psychological crisis, and
life’s transience. The findings show that Shakespeare’s nature imagery is not decorative but a linguistic–cultural code through
which psychological depth and philosophical reflections on life and death are conveyed. The study refines Shakespearean poetics
by highlighting interactions among symbolic language, cultural tradition, and plot design, and it provides a methodological basis
for comparative research on floral motifs across cultures within literary semiotics and cultural linguistics.
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