 When Hamlet and Horatio come across a couple of gravediggers going about their grim

job in a carefree manner in the opening scene of Act 5, Hamlet takes an interest in a skull
that has been carelessly discarded by one of them.

o This skull used to belong to Yorick, the former jester of Hamlet's late father, and
it symbolizes the inescapability of death and the hollowness of life in the face of
this fact.
 Hamlet remembers Yorick and grieves to Horatio that the man who used
to be so lively and fun-loving is now just a pile of bones in the dirt.
o Thus, Yorick's skull serves as an emblem of Hamlet's growing despondency and
nihilism triggered by his father's death.
 From this point on, Hamlet is filled with fatalism, recognizing that it
doesn't matter how people live their lives because everyone will
eventually return to dust.
 This ultimate truth drives him to seriously consider killing Claudius in the
next scene, although Hamlet himself is killed in an ironic twist, showing
that death truly is unavoidable.
 n the aftermath of Polonius's death, Ophelia's mental state is drastically affected. With no
one to trust and her lover Hamlet seemingly having gone insane, she wanders the halls of
Elsinore, singing songs that range from childish, to overtly sexual, to grim.

 As she does so, she passes out "flowers" (which may or may not be real, depending on
the staging) to those she meets, the variety of which symbolizes her complex personality.

o She offers rosemary (often held at funerals), pansies (which are linked to the
French word for “remembrance”), fennel (which embodies deep sadness),
columbines (a token of affection shared between lovers), and daisies (which
represent fertility).
o But Ophelia states that she has no violets left—these withered when her father
died. Violets are symbols of humility and the Virgin Mary, indicating that Ophelia
no longer cares about upholding social norms in the wake of tragedy.
o Her “bouquet” is contradictory, showing both sorrow and joy, chastity and love.
o This symbolizes her multifaceted desires that have been suppressed by society’s
expectations.
 This is echoed by the "fantastic garlands" of flowers found on her body
after her suicide, which show that in her last moments, Ophelia chose to
surround herself with symbols of all she was and could have been if she
had not been restricted.