Motifs are one of the best literary devices you can have in your writer’s toolbox. Essentially, a motif is a recurring element in a story that points to a larger theme or idea. It can be a word, an image, a sound, or a symbol used to highlight a pattern in your work and build narrative significance.
You can use this type of patterning to grab the reader’s attention and point them in a specific direction. Motifs are like symbolic signposts for your theme. In this article, I will go over the difference between a motif and a symbol, look at some examples, and offer you a Story Weapon on how you can weave motifs into your own writing.
Motifs are recurring elements such as images, words, or symbols that reinforce a story’s larger themes through repetition. By weaving motifs thoughtfully and organically into a narrative, you can deepen the meaning in your story, guide readers toward key ideas, and enrich the overall texture of your work.
Motif vs Symbol
Motifs are symbolic by nature, but not all symbols are motifs.
A symbol can be used only once in a book or film, but a motif will always pop up repeatedly throughout a story to help drive the idea home. Symbols can become motifs. Repetition is the key technical difference between them.
This doesn’t mean that you should splash everything important to your story in bright orange, for example. Motifs should still be used intentionally and placed with thoughtful care.
Examples of motifs
To better understand motifs and how they can be a part of your work, let’s take a look at a few examples first.
Blood in Macbeth
“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!”
– Lady Macbeth
This is a quote from the play Macbeth, which is rife with motifs. There’s a reason Shakespeare’s works are studied so much; they make use of classical techniques in distinct ways.
The line “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” is a piece of dialogue from Lady Macbeth as she sleepwalks and tries to wash blood off her hands. The motif of blood is consistent throughout the play and points to the themes of violence and corruption.
Could you say that blood is a symbol for violence? Absolutely. What makes it a motif is how often blood appears in the work, making it a distinct part of the story’s texture. A symbol might appear just once. From the bloodied captain reporting to King Duncan, to Macbeth considering the “bloody business” before him as he contemplates murder, to the guilt he feels when he commits the deed, and Lady Macbeth’s own tortured dreams before their castle is overrun by MacDuff’s forces, blood flows through this play from start to finish.
Racism in the Harry Potter series
There are a great number of motifs in the Harry Potter books and films. One of these is racism and segregation, usually based on magical blood for the humans and lack of humanity for magical creatures.
There are purebloods, half-bloods, Squibs, and muggle-borns. The antagonistic characters in the book often make snide remarks about muggle-borns or “mudbloods.” Another example is the treatment of house-elves, a race of creatures enslaved to their masters. There are claims that house-elves enjoy their servitude, which Hermione Granger doesn’t buy for a second.
Why are these motifs in the book? They’re a microcosm of a larger argument, which exposes fascism and hatred as weaknesses. Voldemort pushes the idea of pureblood superiority, not unlike the dictators in World War II which was surely present in the mind of J.K. Rowling as she wrote the novels.
By discussing the purebloods and house-elves, we get to see how different characters position themselves on such issues. We learn about how they deal with publicly accepted hatred, and that connects us to the broader theme.
The Yellow Umbrella in How I Met Your Mother
On a lighter note, we can look at a motif from the comedy series How I Met Your Mother. There are a lot of running jokes in the show, like the mysterious pineapple, but one recurring element that serves to emphasize the themes of hope and connection is the yellow umbrella.
The umbrella first appears in season 3. The main character, Ted Mosby, finds a discarded bright yellow umbrella at a bar after a party and takes it home with him. His love interest, the future mother of his children, had left it there. The umbrella is referenced multiple times across the series, a beacon to the moment he finally meets her.
She gets the umbrella back again in season 5, years later when Ted briefly dates her roommate, Cindy. He accidentally leaves the umbrella behind in their apartment when the dalliance ends. This is the first time he physically sees “the mother” as he catches a glimpse of her ankle when she leaves the room he’s entering.
The two finally meet in season 9 at a train station, where Tracy McConnell is holding her umbrella. Ted points out that it has his initials “T.M.” on it, but those are also Tracy’s initials. The umbrella represents the culmination of Ted’s hope for true love and their connection to one another. Although it took them a long time to meet, they were always around the same areas, doing similar things. They shared something before they even knew one another.
Your story weapon: How to use motifs
When writing your rough draft, allow the motifs to grow organically. You may notice there are certain images that you delight in including, or character habits that just seem to work for the piece. In the rewrite, you may recognize symbols that you may want to build out into a recurring motif. Remember, motifs are not random, they are connected to your theme.
Say, for example, you were writing Macbeth. First of all, congratulations. Second of all, it would be natural for you to include mentions of blood a few times, as the idea of ugly violence and its cost is held in your subconscious while you tell the tale. Once you recognize that something about blood really works in the story, you’d add it a few other places. All of a sudden, you’ve got a scholar noting that there is a motif in your work. We should all be so lucky!
Once you have an idea of your motifs, it can be helpful as well to surround yourself with a few objects or colors that feel in line with your story. Set the stage for yourself.
If you’re writing a comedy, maybe a pineapple can bring inspiration. If you’re writing a mystery novel, being able to look at a knife could be incredibly helpful. There’s a physical weight to it and a point. The same is true for a book about cooking; you could write near a kitchen or brainstorm while enjoying the delicious scents and flavors of your favorite dishes.
By dressing your surroundings like the inner world you’re nurturing, motifs can occur naturally. Literary criticism creates these definitions, but writing births them on its own. Good luck with your motifs!
Track how your motifs build in meaning through the beats of your story in my next Story Day or 30-Day Outline workshop.
