Grave Matters
Famous last word
Plot points
Who said it?
Meter and Form
100

The grave digger jokes that this man has been in the ground long enough to be nothing but dust

Who is Yorick?

100

Hamlet makes a point about the equality of all people in death by referring to this “court jester.”

Who is Yorick?

100

The person jumps into Ophelia’s grave out of grief.

Who is Laertes?

100

“This same skull, sir, was Yorick’s skull, the king’s jester.”

Who is the grave digger?

100

The gravedigger's dialogue is written in this form instead of verse, highlighting his social class and role.

What is prose?

200

The gravedigger uses this object to toss up skulls while digging.

What is a shovel?

200

Hamlet wonders if this powerful historical figure looked like Yorick when dead.

Who is Alexander the Great?

200

The reason Ophelia does not receive a full christian burial rites.

What is the suspicion of suicide?

200

“Lay her i’ the earth: And from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring!”

Who is Laertes?

200

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?

300

According to the gravedigger, this is how long Yorick has been dead.

What is 23 years?

300

Hamlet says this iconic line while holding the skull.

What is “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio”?

300

Hamlet and this character observe the gravediggers at the start of the scene.

Who is Horatio?

300

“Why, e’en so, and now my Lady Worm’s, chapless and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton’s spade.”

Who is Hamlet?

300

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?

400

Hamlet reflects on the equality of death, noting that even this historical figure’s skull is now dust.

Who is Alexander the Great?

400

In the graveyard, Hamlet speculates that even this beverage container could once have held a king.  

What is a barrel?

400

Hamlet claims he loved Ophelia more than this group of people.

Who are “forty thousand brothers”?

400

“Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.”

Who is Hamlet?

400

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?

500

The graveyard scene juxtaposes these two contrasting tones, creating a unique mood as Hamlet contemplates mortality.

What are humor and tragedy?

500

Hamlet mocks death’s leveling power by imagining the noble and the lowly ending up in this same place.

What is the grave?

500

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?

500

“I will fight with him upon this theme until my eyelids will no longer wag.”

Who is Hamlet?

500

This term describes unrhymed iambic pentameter, the dominant verse form in Shakespearean drama.

What is blank verse?