Question

Sc. 1, Lines 187–219: Which lines most clearly state Hamlet’s thoughts on death? Describe how these thoughts relate to his thoughts expressed in lines 76–114 when he considers the Gravedigger’s treatment of skulls.

Answer 1

Answer:

"Alas, poor

Yorick! I knew him, Horatio—a fellow of infinite

jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his

back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in

my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung

those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.

Where be your gibes now? your gambols? Your songs?..."

Explanation:

In act 5 Sc 1 In the graveyard Hamlet realizes he knew the person that the skull belonged to. He starts asking himself how everything changes after death. Even if in life people are powerful and refined, after death things simply fade away after the soul has abandoned the body. These thoughts of the scene can be compared to those expressed by Hamlet in lines 76-114

"That skull had a tongue in it and could sing

once. How the knave jowls it to the ground as if

’twere Cain’s jawbone, that did the first murder!"

when he describes how once the skull had a body and could do many things like singing, but at the end all lives become the same, just simply skulls.