ipl-logo

How Does Yorick's Skull Act As A Symbol Of Death In Hamlet

1006 Words5 Pages

Yorick’s Skull and Death The main focus of this paper will be Yorick’s skull from The Tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. This paper will address the question: How does Yorick’s skull act as a symbol of death within Hamlet? Yorick’s skull functions as a tool to help those who see it understand death. For instance, Yorick’s skull helps Hamlet come to the realization that death eliminates the differences between people. The hierarchical structure of society is illusory and ultimately crumbles at the end of life. Yorick’s skull triggers memories of Yorick’s life within Hamlet. Hamlet describes some when he describes how Yorick “…bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is!”(Shakespeare 1491) He is …show more content…

Hamlet describes the death of Alexander the Great by exclaiming “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust, the dust to earth…” (Shakespeare 1492) Hamlet is reciting the sequence of events that all dead experience. This demonstrates that even Alexander the Great undergoes the same processes as a dirty beggar or anyone else. He also brings up another mentionable name in the form of Imperious Caser. Hamlet is essentially describing that, despite whatever role one played in life, grand or minuscule, one will eventually be dead. This is quite a compelling notion because all of Hamlet is based around death. As G. Wilson Knight, an English literary critic and academic, affirms “…graveyard meditations, though often beautiful, are remorselessly realistic.”(1) This is intriguing because it shows how Hamlet’s interaction with Yorick’s skull has allowed him to have a more realistic view on life instead of relying upon ghosts and prophecies. The skull opens Hamlet’s mind to the physical world and distracts him from the metaphysical. His concept of death has grown deeper. Of course, before this point Hamlet was sporadic and acting upon madness. Knight explains that “Hamlet whose mind is obsessed with hideous thoughts of the body’s decay” (1) was still only limited to his mind. He never had any tangible way to see

Show More
Related

  • Fear Of Death In Hamlet

    584 Words  | 3 Pages

    What Hamlet is saying is that the dead body went back into dust which God created him out

    Read More

  • Grief In Hamlet's Grief

    1071 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet struggles to cope with his late father’s death and his mother’s quick marriage. In Act 1, Scene 2, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and Hamlet are all introduced. Hamlet has just finished publicly speaking with his mom and the new king, and after he is interrupted by his good friend Horatio, who reveal the secret about King Hamlet’s ghost. Hamlet’s soliloquy is particularly crucial because it serves as his initial characterization, revealing the causes of his anguish. Hamlet’s grief is apparent to the audience, as he begins lamenting about the uselessness of life.

    Read More

  • Hamlet The Ghost

    1084 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Ghost, or the former King of Denmark, is arguably the most important character in Shakespeare ’s play Hamlet. While he is not necessarily the most prominent, such as the Prince Hamlet, his presence creates the entire plot of the play: young Hamlet’s tragic downfall. There is no questioning the fact that without the King’s death, there would be no play. He is the source of all drama and anguish, tension and distrust; every character death and every dispute serve as a dramatic effect of the King’s mysterious death.

    Read More

  • Futility Of Life In Hamlet

    962 Words  | 4 Pages

    He maintains that his life has no value throughout the play and contemplates suicide. Hamlet's questioning thoughts on life's worth is further expressed the ten lines of 203-212 in act V scene i. which read ““No, faith, not a jot, but to follow him thither/ with modesty enough and likelihood to lead it:/ Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander retur-/ neth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make/ loam, and why of that loam whereto he was con-/ verted might they not stop a beer-barrel?/ Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,/ Might stop a hole to keep the wind away./ O that the earth which kept the world in awe/ Should patch a wall t' expel the winter's flaw!” Hamlet speaks these lines during an exchange with the gravediggers, one who was singing and juggling skulls while he worked. In these lines, Hamlet explains how no one's life is really worth anything because, in the end, we are all reduced to corpses, skulls, dust, and clay. By using Alexander and Caesar as examples, two influential and powerful leaders of

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Death In Hamlet

    713 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet’s attitude toward death changes throughout the play from first not understanding to ultimately coming to terms with death. When Hamlet is first introduced, he is very angry and troubled because of the recent passing of his father, as well as the new marriage his mother has entered. Based off of Hamlet’s actions and attitudes towards others it is apparent that he is having an internal conflict with the nature of his father’s murder and revenge. However, many characters write off Hamlet’s aggression as madness caused by various other reasons. The audience acts as an omniscient being when watching Hamlet because they know all of the truths, such as Hamlet’s obsession with the Ghost.

    Read More

  • How Does Hamlet Change Throughout The Play

    1339 Words  | 6 Pages

    The tragic play Hamlet starts with the protagonist Hamlet going to his father’s funeral located in Denmark. When he arrives, he is baffled to find out that his mother has moved on and already married another man, his Uncle Claudius. his immediate response was pure anger and rage. That night, he is visited by a ghost that reveals himself to be his father. The ghost explains in detail that he was poisoned and murdered by the new king, his Uncle Claudius.

    Read More

  • Comparing Hamlet And Branagh's Speech

    550 Words  | 3 Pages

    but it brought out Hamlet’s intelligence and solidified his sanity. The dark background of the set forced the audience to focus on the little details of Gibson’s expressions and then the bodies that appeared with their eyes closed using sleep to symbolize death. All of the coffins represent the many different ways that Hamlet could kill Claudius but they are also an allusion to Hamlet’s struggle with life. Gibson’s tone is sad, depressed, and yet soft throughout his soliloquy. There was no music which allowed the audience to rely on his words and expressions to portray the emotion of the

    Read More

  • Symbols And Symbolism In Hamlet

    1347 Words  | 6 Pages

    Throughout many literary works, there are various objects, people, or elements that symbolize something far greater in the work as a whole. These elements are necessary to deepen the reader’s understanding of the work in its entirety or specific characters within the text. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the story opens with the appearance of the ghost of Hamlet’s father. This leads to a certain set of events that eventually lead to Hamlet’s downfall. Hamlet, is by far, one of Shakespeare’s most diverse characters seen as Hamlet is a reflection of many of the other characters around him:

    Read More

  • Outline For Hamlet Research Paper

    516 Words  | 3 Pages

    His mother is telling Hamlet that is the circle of life; someone is born and eventually they will die. In act five scene 1, while Hamlet asks the gravedigger how long it takes a body to decompose, the grave digger points to a skull that was once knew the person. Hamlet there realizes the death is indeed inevitable: “Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay/ might stop a hole to keep the

    Read More

  • Hamlet Misogynistic Analysis

    1404 Words  | 6 Pages

    Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragedy in all sense of the word. Its most prominent characters, Hamlet, Ophelia, Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes, all of whom die, do not do so before going through the most tortuous and devastating of mishappenings. From the very beginning, we learn that Hamlet’s father, the king, has just died. And, only two months after, Hamlet’s mother marries his father’s brother. Hamlet is clearly distressed about his father’s death, but what brings about his suspicions is a visit from his father’s supposed ghost, who tells him that Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, poisoned him.

    Read More

  • His Father's Death And Death In Hamlet

    1156 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the beginning of the play Hamlet, the main character, is struggling with events that have taken place in his life. His Father has recently died and his Uncle has now married his Mother. With sorrow and pain, Hamlet tries to understand and unravel the aberrant events that have taken place with his family. The events have amended the way Hamlet views death. After his Father’s death, Hamlet questions the afterlife; whether it offers a “peaceful slumber” or an “everlasting nightmare”.

    Read More

  • Memory And Remembrance Of The Dead In Hamlet

    1425 Words  | 6 Pages

    The importance of memory and remembrance of the dead in Hamlet can be examined in three facets. Firstly, through how the act of remembering the dead examines practices of mourning. The play is about what it means to remember, therefore tensions are created between characters when they choose to cope with the memory of the dead in different ways. Secondly, the importance of remembering the dead is that it fuels the actions taken in the play, as the events of the play are a fallout of Hamlet’s bid to remember his father. Thirdly, the importance of memory and remembrance of the dead is that the impact vengful actions have on the character’s of the play.

    Read More

  • Death Theme In Hamlet

    847 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is tangled with the theme of death. During the play, he presents how his life is surrounded with death after the death of his father. Death theme is the most occuring theme Shakespeare writes about in his plays, which most plays have a very dramatic death theme and most of time involve the death of the main protagonist. Throughout the play, Shakespeare presents the idea of life, which is the never ending cycle of death and revenge. Shakespeare starts the theme of death with the death of King Hamlet, which stimulates Hamlet to seek for revenge with his various soliloquies considering death from various points of view and certainly leads to a dramatic ending.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Death In Hamlet

    1306 Words  | 6 Pages

    Shakespeare presents death as an inevitable act of life, noting that all that is living must eventually come to an end. Due to “Hamlet” being a Shakespearean tragedy, the theme of death recurs throughout the play. Additionally, Shakespeare can be seen as using revenge as the main motive of a character’s murder, which makes “Hamlet” a revenge tragedy. The tragic nature means that by the end of the play, majority of the characters would have died. In this case, many of the characters have died due to murder or suicide.

    Read More

  • Hamlet's Flawful Murder In Hamlet By William Shakespeare

    350 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Hamlet one of the key moments of the story line is when the supposed ghost of King Hamlet, Hamlet’s father comes back from the dead to tell Hamlet how he was killed and by who. In my visul I drew a large skull of King Hamlet, who is supposed to be looking down over all of Hamlet’s actions as his mission is now to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (I,v,29). While King Hamlet is watching over Hamlet, Hamlet is contemplating life or death, and which he would rather be in. “To be or not to be” (III,i,63).

    Read More

More about How Does Yorick's Skull Act As A Symbol Of Death In Hamlet

Open Document