 The melody of the vocal line in Hamlet's first phrases has been called the Theme of Hamlet's Love for Ophélie and appears several more times in the opera, with particular poignancy near the end of the Mad Scene (see below).The three themes which have been introduced in this number are the most important elements which Thomas uses for creating compositional and dramatic unity in the opera.They reoccur, usually in modified form, whenever significant situations relevant to the ideas they represent present themselves, although without having, in the Wagnerian sense, a leitmotivic function.