Grave Matters
The grave digger jokes that this man has been in the ground long enough to be nothing but dust
Who is Yorick?
Hamlet makes a point about the equality of all people in death by referring to this “court jester.”
Who is Yorick?
The person jumps into Ophelia’s grave out of grief.
Who is Laertes?
“This same skull, sir, was Yorick’s skull, the king’s jester.”
Who is the grave digger?
The gravedigger's dialogue is written in this form instead of verse, highlighting his social class and role.
What is prose?
The gravedigger uses this object to toss up skulls while digging.
What is a shovel?
Hamlet wonders if this powerful historical figure looked like Yorick when dead.
Who is Alexander the Great?
The reason Ophelia does not receive a full christian burial rites.
What is the suspicion of suicide?
“Lay her i’ the earth: And from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring!”
Who is Laertes?
The phrase “To what base uses we may return, Horatio!” uses this metrical form, which Shakespeare often employed in serious reflection.
What is iambic pentameter?
According to the gravedigger, this is how long Yorick has been dead.
What is 23 years?
Hamlet says this iconic line while holding the skull.
What is “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio”?
Hamlet and this character observe the gravediggers at the start of the scene.
Who is Horatio?
“Why, e’en so, and now my Lady Worm’s, chapless and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton’s spade.”
Who is Hamlet?
Shakespeare often switches between prose and verse depending on this character trait or function of a character.
What is their social status or emotional state?
Hamlet reflects on the equality of death, noting that even this historical figure’s skull is now dust.
Who is Alexander the Great?
In the graveyard, Hamlet speculates that even this beverage container could once have held a king.
What is a barrel?
Hamlet claims he loved Ophelia more than this group of people.
Who are “forty thousand brothers”?
“Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.”
Who is Hamlet?
In the line “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio,” the metrical irregularity caused by emotional emphasis is an example of this.
What is a metrical variation or inversion?
The graveyard scene juxtaposes these two contrasting tones, creating a unique mood as Hamlet contemplates mortality.
What are humor and tragedy?
Hamlet mocks death’s leveling power by imagining the noble and the lowly ending up in this same place.
What is the grave?
Hamlet’s handling of Yorick’s skull prompts him to reflect on this universal theme, central to the scene’s philosophical tone.
What is mortality?
“I will fight with him upon this theme until my eyelids will no longer wag.”
Who is Hamlet?
This term describes unrhymed iambic pentameter, the dominant verse form in Shakespearean drama.
What is blank verse?