What Is a Motif: Definitions & Examples

Melchior Antoine
May 28
7 min read

Literary motifs are literary devices that are common in literary works. They are recurring tropes or patterns in a work of literature that you may casually come across when reading. They are not the same as themes or symbols, but they are closely related. Here is a definition of the term:

A motif is a pattern, such as an image, sound, word, or concept that occurs repeatedly within a particular story and usually supports the story’s underlying themes.

There are many famous examples of motifs in literature. For example in Macbeth, one of the recurring motifs is that of unnaturalness and moral perversion. This is seen for example in the description of the witches by Banquo after he and Macbeth encounter them for the first time.

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3:

. . . What are these,

So withered, and so wild in their attire,

That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ Earth

And yet are on ’t?—Live you? Or are you aught

That man may question? You seem to understand me

By each at once her choppy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

The witches seem so unnatural that according to Banquo they don’t look like creatures that belong on earth or as he puts it “not like the inhabitants of the Earth.” He also makes mention of their hard-to-pin-down gender. They seem like women “yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so.” This theme of unnaturalness recurs throughout the play and is even featured in the Three Witches’s famous phrase, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” This phrase reflects the perverted and unnatural morality of Macbeth, who murders his kind and noble king as that king sleeps as a guest under the roof of the Macbeth household.

A depiction of the three witches by Henry Fuseli, in Macbeth. Their appearance and description are associated with motifs related to unnaturalness. — Henry Fuseli, The Three Witches, 1783.

For example, Lady Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 5 asks for demons to “unsex” her and to remove all her motherly or womanly instincts so that she has the heart and fortitude to murder King Duncan in his sleep.

Later, we see Macbeth fighting on like a super villain refusing to be defeated, putting faith in the witches telling him that no man born of a woman can kill him. He is eventually killed by Banquo who was born via a caesection.

This motif of unnaturalness supports the play’s theme of moral perversion and its awful consequences. Unnaturalness in the play is associated with immoral thoughts and actions that lead to guilt and bloodshed. For example, Lady Macbeth goes insane from guilt and eventually commits suicide after participating in the plot to murder King Duncan.

Macbeth loses all of his humanity after accepting encouragement from the Three Witches to make a bid for the Scottish crown by killing Duncan and rivals to the throne. In this article, we explore even more motifs from Macbeth and other works of literature such as Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby.

Examples of motifs in literature

There are several motifs in Shakepeare’s Macbeth. We already looked at motifs relating to unnaturalness. Here, we’re going to look at one more motif — bloody hands.

1. Shakespeare, Macbeth

Bloody hands occur frequently in Macbeth. In everyday speech, phrases like “blood on your hand” mean guilt associated with a crime or wrongdoing. Bloody hands are used in the same way in Macbeth. They are associated with wrongdoing and guilt. In fact, hands are referenced about thirty-two times in the play.

Here is one excerpt to illustrate this point.

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2:

Whence is that knocking?

How is't with me, when every noise appals me?

What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas incarnadine,

Making the green one red.

What’s going on here? Macbeth has just murdered Duncan and is tormented by guilt. He describes his bloody hands as so bright with red “they pluck out mine eyes.” MAcbeth goes on to say that his guilt is so immense that if he washes his hand in the sea it would make “the green one red.”

We see hands being featured again with Lady Macbeth expressing her guilt in Act 5, Scene 1:

Here's the smell of the blood still: all the

perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little

hand. Oh, oh, oh!

In this scene Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking. In her sleep she is confessing unknowingly to the part she played in the conspiracy to murder Duncan. She is being tormented by her guilt. In her imagination, her hands are still reeking of blood from the murder of Duncan.

There are many more motifs in Macbeth. To learn more about them, you can check out this previous article: Understanding Literary Motifs In Macbeth.

2. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is packed with motifs associated with the contradictory nature of love. These motifs typically take the form of oxymorons and paradoxical language.

Here is a famous quote using oxymoronic language from Act 1, Scene 1:

Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.

Why, then, O brawling love, O loving hate,

O anything of nothing first created,

O heavy lightness, serious vanity,

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,

Still-waking sleep that is not what it is.

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Romeo is lamenting the unrequited love of Rosalind. He uses contradictory language such as “brawling love” and “loving hate” to describe the paradox of love causing him so much pain. Love is supposed to be a source of joy and happiness. However, here it is the opposite.

Because Rosalind doesn’t return his love, Romeo is being tormented emotionally. He describes love as “a feather of lead,” sick health,” and a host of other oxymorons.

In Act 2, Scene 2, we also see a juxtaposition of freedom and love. Shakespeare seems to suggest that love is capable of depriving one of freedom and even killing the object of its desire:

Romeo: I would I were thy bird.

Juliet:

Sweet, so would I,

Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,

That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

This is from the play’s famous balcony scene. Here, Juliet previously described Romeo as a bird on a golden leash who tries to hop away but who is pulled back each time by its owner.

Romeo desires to be such a bird. However, a bird doted on in such a manner would likely die from a lack of freedom. Juliet admits as much when she says, "I should kill thee with much cherishing."

This suggests that love far from being completely wholesome has the power to imprison, make sick, or even kill. This paradox is further emphasized by the oxymoronic phrase “parting is such sweet sorrow.”

3. The Great Gatsby

In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (published in 1925), there are a number of motifs that occur throughout the novel. However, here, we will focus on the color green. The color green occurs repeatedly in the novel.

It is a motif associated with the illusive nature of the American dream. Gatsby keeps staring at Daisy’s house at the end of the dock. Daisy is a married woman, but Gatsby is in love with her and wants to make her his. Here is a quote describing him staring at the green light at the end of the dock, which is Daisy’s household:

He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.

The theme of The Great Gatsby revolves around the corrupting and elusive nature of the American dream. Here, the green light is portrayed as something that Gatsby yearns after, but can never attain.

Fitzgerald here is making a critique of the American dream as something that most Americans would probably never achieve despite its widespread appeal and allure. The novel even associates green with the discovery of America by the Dutch:

And as the moon rose higher, the inessential houses began to melt away till gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes, A fresh green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams.

The writer is making reference to the fact that those who “discovered” America saw it as a refuge from the wars and political and religious strife and persecution of the old European world. The American Dream then was not a new invention. It has always been an illusory vision or promise that continued up to the present.

In the novel, Gatsby is eventually killed by the husband of Myrtle Wilson, who wrongly believes that Gatsby killed her in a car accident. The car that kills Myrtle is also described as green. Associating this motif with death suggests that the illusion of the American Dream could actually be fatal.

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Motifs vs. symbols and themes

Motifs, symbols, and themes are all associated with each other. However, we should be aware of the differences. Motif is French for pattern. This supports the meaning of the term, which is a recurrent pattern in the form of an image, word, or concept that occurs throughout a work of literature.

Symbols, on the other hand, have a much deeper meaning. They represent an idea in the narrative. There may even be some overlap between symbols and motifs. For example, the green light at the end of a dock in The Great Gatsby is part of a recurring motif of the color green. However, in and of itself, it is a symbol that represents Gatsby’s desire for Daisy and the unattainability of such a goal.

Motifs and symbols are used to represent the themes in a narrative. Themes are the main ideas, concepts, or even ideologies that a work of literature tries to develop, expound on, or promote. One of the main themes in Romeo and Juliet, for example, is the contradictory nature of love. The motifs that form the oxymoronic language and paradoxes surrounding love all support this overarching theme.