Ludmilla 20/11/2019

BOUAKKAZ

Commentary : Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Act V, Scene 1
In the first scene of the fifth act of Shakespeare’s Hamlet written in 1603, two
gravediggers are debating the burial condition of the “woman” they are digging the grave
for, arguing whether or not she deserves this Christian burial given that she took her own
life. Despite the subject of death being omnipresent in this scene (as well as in the play), it is
not what transpires the most. Here, different themes intertwine to create an almost comical,
yet eerie and heavy scene. The audience is in a place of doubt and contemplation as we are
aware of Ophelia’s death when Hamlet is not, yet, like Hamlet, we are still confused about
the existence of ghosts' spirits and of revenge as fair justice. After his father’s murder,
Hamlet obsesses over the idea of death in all its form and all the consequences it creates for
the living. Spiritually with the spirits and religion, physically, in his encounter with Yorick’s
skull, a reminder of what is left of the dead and mentally with his entourage dying all around
him. All these themes, constantly question by the eponymous character are his tools used to
try and make sense of this world, filled with unanswered questions, uncertainty and
ambiguity. In addition, the “Hamlet Study Guide” says: “since death is both the cause and
the consequence of revenge, it is intimately tied to the theme of revenge and justice—
Claudius’s murder of King Hamlet initiates Hamlet’s quest for revenge, and Claudius’s death
is the end of that quest.” All these themes are mentioned in the excerpt that we are studying,
emerging mostly from Hamlet himself.

Throughout the play, Hamlet can be seen as an indecisive character, always

questioning everything and everyone around him. This is very prominent in this excerpt
when he enters into a dialogue with a clownesque gravedigger, with Hamlet’s cues being
short questions for the most part. The clash between the two personalities acts almost as a
comical relief in the middle of this tragedy. Very literal questions are answered in a very
literal and amusing manner. “What man dost thou dig it for? For no man, sir. What woman,
then? For none, neither. Who is to be buried in ’t? One that was a woman, sir, but, rest her
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soul, she’s dead. How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or equivocation will
undo us.” (lines 110-118) This witty “confrontation” can also highlight Hamlet’s obsession
with death and its mysteries. He seems to see a clear link between death and spiritual truth
which is interesting when we put in perspective his relationship with the “Ghost” of his
father, which can be seen as his conscience, a part of his spirit telling him to bring forth the
truth and to provide what seems to be righteous justice. But even then, the mystery remains
on the existence of this ghost. The gravedigger being alive and surrounded by death is very
symbolic in this excerpt and his wit and repartee can be seen as highlighting Hamlet’s later
cue when mentioning his late jester: “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of
infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.” (l 170). Here, “jest” and “fancy” are qualities that
Yorick no longer has, as a skull in a graveyard but that the gravedigger does have, as a living
man in the same graveyard. The location is pivotal in this scene for several reasons: the
graveyard is the physical place where corpses rest, but it is unclear to all whether it also
holds the spirits of the deceased. One of the deceased who will soon inhabits the place,
unbeknown to Hamlet, is Ophelia. The fact that the gravedigger is preparing the final resting
place of the woman Hamlet loves is rather painful to the audience especially since Hamlet is
grieving his former jester at the same moment. Imagination and memory are mixed in
Hamlet’s speech with a back and forth between what was and what could be. When
reminiscing about Yorick's life while holding his skull, he seems to remember a happier time
for him, through the tales of this jester’s personality, a feeling which is dismissed
straightaway with his complaint “He carried me on his back a thousand times, and now—
how terrible—this is him. It makes my stomach turn. I don’t know how many times I kissed
the lips that used to be right here. Where are your jokes now? Your pranks? Your songs?”.
“how terrible”, “this is him” followed by several rhetorical questions addressed to Yorick's
spirit. Or his ghost as one can assume. This small cue reinforces Hamlet’s certitude of the
uncertainty of what comes after death and what death actually means. The afterlife and the
notion of limbo, the unknown, follow him.

The excerpt we are studying faces us once again with death and how trying to avoid it
is futile because no one, no matter how likeable or innocent they are, can escape it. It is the
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one thing that is inevitable. Therefore, there is an innate need to make sense of it, especially
in the character of Hamlet who is surrounded by death, from his family to his servants to his
loved one. That is where the notion of the Afterlife becomes important. It is used as an
appeasing answer to the ever so mysterious question of what happens after death and what
the effects of one’s life have on one’s afterlife. This issue of the afterlife is exemplified in the
psychological journey that Hamlet goes through during the play. He begins like any other
man, afraid of death and the ending that it entails, too “brutal” to handle but by the time we
reach the excerpt, he is turning into a more accepting Hamlet, who slowly comes to term
with the fact that death has, does and will come to all beings, good or bad. After his
conversation with the gravedigger and his contemplation of death, afterlife and his own
future with Yorick's skull, Hamlet is clearly overwhelmed, yet he speaks of life and death as
a cycle, saying: “To what base uses we may return, Horatio. Why may not imagination trace
the noble dust of Alexander till he find it stopping a bunghole?” implying that the greatest
men come from dust and end up in dust in a sort of divine cycle. But then again, none of it is
certain. Afterlife is the opposite of death, no one knows what it truly is, just like the idea of
limbo, which is as one might believe, where the "Ghost” of Hamlet’s father is trapped, this
space between life and death created to emphasize this uncertainty of what comes after
death. Limbo may be part of this idea of cycle, and ghosts may well be the souls of the dead
that are trapped in this part of the cycle because another part of their cycle has yet to be
completed, the murder of Claudius, in Hamlet’s father’s ghost’s case. Revenge may be the
only way to free him. The ghost of a past that does not belong to Hamlet come to haunt him,
along with the ghosts of his own present life and mind.

Hamlet is the actor, director and audience of his own relationship with death. He
contemplates suicide (in his famous “to be or not to be” monologue) he directs a play to
showcase the murder of his own father (in Act III scene 2 , “The Murder of Gonzago) and is
reminded of the weaknesses of his own mind with the apparition of his father as a ghost. His
own mortality is an issue of morality, as suicide is against religion but should be, to him, an
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acceptable escape from the pain of the world. Ophelia, who died from suicide could be seen
as the personification of the decision Hamlet cannot make. This excerpt is, as we previously
said rather pivotal because up until this point, Hamlet’s relationship with death was spiritual.
He talked about it, thought about it and knew about it from afar, but being surrounded by real
human remains is a new form of death, that he doesn’t know and that has yet another effect
on him. The touching of the skull and the presence in the graveyard is a brutal reminder that
death is a physical and emotional occurrence. The fact that he is faced with none other than
Yorick’s skull, deprived of the qualities he admired about his jester when he was alive,
shows the reality of death to Hamlet and the notion of an afterlife seems to slowly fade. He
realistically sees that since death is inevitable, living life becomes pointless. Life is deprived
of meaning since all the struggles and achievements of one’s life are erased as soon as the
person becomes “wormfood” “Oh, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should
patch a wall t' expel the winter’s flaw”. This excerpt is a very interesting one as it plays with
a certain comical aspect at first, to end in a completely opposite and dark place where
Hamlet seems to make his peace with some of his inner questions. However, one could say
that this scene can be read in a very different manner after having finished the play, once the
question of heritage, honor and dignity come into perspective.

Bibliography :
 Websites
https://www.alamyimages.fr/photos-images/hamlet-skull-play.html
https://the-artifice.com/ghost-shakespeare-hamlet/
https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/context/
https://hamletstudyguide.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/the-mystery-of-death/
 Books :
Hamlet, The Oxford Shakespeare, OUP Oxford; Reissue (April 2008)
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