Hamlet Act 5 Sc 1

Hamlet Act 5 Sc 1

Multiple Choice

We find out that the gravediggers were digging the grave for Ophelia (who has died). Here, Hamlet and Laertes meet each other. What happens?

• The two weep together.

• The two argue about who loved Ophelia more.

• The two ignore each other and grieve Ophelia's' death

• The two kill each other.

Multiple Choice

How does Claudius respond to Laertes and Hamlet's encounter?

• Claudius calms Laertes down and tells him to keep his eyes on the prize (the original plan)

• Claudius kills Hamlet right then and there.

• Claudius and Gertrude sit back and simply enjoy the show that Laertes and Hamlet puts on.

• Claudius joins into the argument and claims that he loved Ophelia more than Hamlet and Laertes' love for her combined.

Multiple Choice

We're introduced to a special skull. Whose skull is this and what does Hamlet realize?

• The skull of Polonius. Hamlet realizes that no matter how terrible a person might be, everyone has an inevitable death awaiting anyways.

• The skull of Polonius. Hamlet realized that bad people are not bad when they are dead.

• The skull of Yorick, the king's former jester. Hamlet realizes that no matter how amazing a person might be, everyone has an inevitable death awaiting.

• The skull of Yorick, his childhood friend. Hamlet realizes that the dead are rather quiet.

Multiple Choice

What does the gravedigger say to Hamlet when he asks whose grave he is digging?

• He says that it is his own grave

• It is Polonius' grave

• It is Ophelia's grave

• It is Claudius' grave

Multiple Choice

What does Hamlet notice about the funeral customs?

• There is no one at the funeral

• Everyone is wearing white

• That the customs seems odd and suggest a suicide

• Everyone is happy

Multiple Choice

What does the Priest say to Laertes about Ophelia's funeral treatment?

• She will receive coins to cross the river Styx

• Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown at her.

• She will be accepted by god

• She will be cremated

Multiple Choice

What did Hamlet say to Laertes during Ophelia's funeral

• That she was pregnant with his child

• That she despised her brother Laertes

• That she despised her father Polonius

• That no one can understand the quantity of love he had for Ophelia

Act V Sc 1

• Two gravediggers are digging a grave for Ophelia, who drowned in Act IV

• "Is she to be buried in Christian burial when she willfully seeks her own salvation?" Partner replies yes because the coroner has declared it so.

• Popular opinion that she drowned herself because she's gone 'mad' over Polonius' death

Why This Discussion

The gravediggers have this discussion because, according to Christian doctrine, suicide is a serious sin, and the bodies of people who have killed themselves should not be buried in a church cemetery. The first gravedigger cannot see how her death could be seen as anything other than suicide, and they decide that rich people get away with killing themselves and having Christian funerals.

Debate Continues

• Gravediggers go back and forth exchanging riddles.

• "Who builds stronger things than a stonemason, a shipbuilder, or a carpenter?"

• Gravediggers, because the houses they build last until 'Judgment Day'.

Horatio & Hamlet Appear on the Scene

• Hamlet notices they are moving remains of some bodies to make room for someone's (Ophelia) grave

• One of the gravediggers is singing and this bothers Hamlet.

• Too lighthearted for what should be a somber moment.

Hamlet Wonders

• He muses about the lives of the people whose bones the gravedigger is handling:

• "Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillities, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel?"

• Meaning the skull may have been a lawyer in his former life and now he cannot do anything about the rude gravedigger singing and handling his bones so carelessly.

Whose Grave is This?

• Gravedigger, not recognizing Hamlet, answers him in riddles and paradoxes.

• Eventually admits that it 'was a woman, but, rest her soul, she is dead.'

• This playful speech in a serious situation is meant to be similarly irritating as when Hamet would not tell R&G what he did with Polonius' body in Act IV.

More Banter from the Gravedigger

• The gravedigger goes on to say that he has been digging graves for a long time, ever since Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, killed Fortinbras' father, which was the year young Hamlet was born.

• This is odd, how long has it been since that happened?

• He mentions that Hamlet went mad and was sent to England, where he will blend in because everyone there is mad.

• Hamlet asks the gravedigger more questions about his job. He is clearly disturbed about the the idea of mortality & the fact that someone as 'glib' as this gravedigger might be in charge of his remains one day.

Alas, Yorick I Knew Him Well

When Hamlet picks up a skull, the gravedigger tells him that it is the skull of Yorick, who was the court jester of Hamlet's father. This is upsetting to Hamlet, first of all, because he knew Yorick, and second of all because he is forced to come to terms with the fact that everyone becomes nothing but a skull, and you can't tell the difference between a jester and someone great like Julius Ceasar or Alexander the Great based on their skull.

Ophelia's Funeral

• A crowd enters the scene for Ophelia's funeral (Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, and few other court members)

• Hamlet & Horatio hide so that they can watch unnoticed (why doesn't Hamlet recognize everyone?)

• Hamlet notes that the funeral is "plain and scrawny." Indicating that the deceased person committed suicide.

• He doesn't realize this funeral is for Ophelia (and thus that she is dead) until she is about to be laid in her grave)

Reluctant Christian Burial

• Laertes is upset with the priest because the priest does not want to give Ophelia a Christian burial (remember suicide is not just against the law but is a mortal sin).

• He is so grief-stricken and furious that he leaps into her grave, wanting to hold her one last time (is he so emotional because he was unable to attend Polonius' funeral?)

I Loved Her More Than You Did

Hamlet cannot stand to watch this display of emotion without becoming emotional himself. He jumps into the grave as well and begins to fight with Laertes, saying that ''forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum,'' meaning that he loved Ophelia more than any number of brothers could.

Though earlier, in Act 3, Hamlet was extremely cold to Ophelia and denied ever loving her at all.

Hamlet Still Mad

• Claudius & Gertrude maintain Hamlet is mad

• Hamlet and Horatio exit the scene

• Claudius reminds Laertes to be patient in final rhyming couplets

• "An hour of quiet shortly shall we see. Till then in patience our proceeding be."

• They will be seeking their revenge soon.

Multiple Choice

In Act 5 Scene 1, what does Hamlet do when he sees Laertes jump into Ophelia's grave out of grief?

• He and Horatio make fun of Laertes

• He jumps into the grave as well, wanting to outdo Laertes

• He leaves the graveyard

• He cries

Multiple Choice

At the end of Act 5 Scene 1, which character tells Laertes to stay calm and be patient, for they will be killing Hamlet soon?

• Gertrude

• The gravedigger

• Claudius

• Horatio

Multiple Choice

In Act 5 Scene 1, what bothers Hamlet about one of the gravediggers as he is moving bones?

• He does not know who the skeletons used to be

• He was also in love with Ophelia

• He is singing

• He is juggling with the bones

Multiple Choice

In Act 5 Scene 1, why does the gravedigger question giving Ophelia a Christian burial?

• She had a child out of wedlock

• She appears to have committed suicide

• She was not Christian

• Ophelia had wanted to be cremated

Multiple Choice

In Act 5 Scene 1, what statement does Hamlet make about Ophelia that contradicts something he said in an earlier scene?

• That she committed suicide

• That he hates her

• That he loves her

• That she was not crazy

'Alas, Poor Yorick': Quote's Meaning & Overview

The context and meaning of a famous quote from William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.' In the quote, we see a scared young prince who is coming to terms with death and growing more courageous.

The Quote in Context

It is spoken by Hamlet, the play's central protagonist, to his friend Horatio. They are in a graveyard, and Hamlet has just picked up the skull of Yorick, who was a jester in Hamlet's father's court. Throughout the entire play up to this point, Hamlet has been mulling the problem of death. His father has died, and he knows that if he avenges his father's death, he probably will die as well. His revenge is the central conflict in the play. The quote is one of Hamlet's many musings about the problem of death and of dying and what it means to have one's existence washed away by time.

Analysis

The part of Hamlet's speech most often quoted is the first few lines or even the first few words, but to understand the quote we have to examine the broader speech.

Hamlet's speech here seems to go back and forth between addressing both Horatio and Yorick. Picking up Yorick's skull, he says to Horatio:

Most Famous Skull

'Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow

of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath

borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how

abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at

it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know

not how oft.'

Here he seems directly: to address Yorick directly

'Where be your gibes now? your

gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,

that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one

now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?'

It's uncertain to whom Hamlet addresses the last part. It could be Horatio or Yorick:

'Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let

her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must

come. . .'

Hamlet's Horror at the Stillness of Death

• Looking at the skull, Hamlet is preoccupied with the discrepancy between Yorick's face as he remembers it AND the Yorick face he holds in his hands.

• The Yorick he remembers was a jester. this is significant.

• Hamlet remembers the man's vibrant smile, his laughter, and energy.

• He remembers Yorick as being wildly charming, an example full of liveliness.

Hamlet's Horror at the Stillness of Death cont.

• The skull in his hand stans in full contrast to his memory.

• As an object, it illustrates starkly how completely death has undone Yorick.

• How it has taken everything that was the man's identity and made it nothing at all - just bone.

• Obviously, this affects Hamlet deeply.

• He feels his 'gorge rim at it,' which is to say he feels that he's about to vomit.

Hamlet's Misogyny

• At the end of the speech, Hamlet tells either Horatio or Yorick 'to get to my lady's chamber.'

• Who Hamlet is addressing isn't clear, but they are to deliver a message for him.

• They are to tell her she can 'paint an inch thick... to this favour she must / come.'

• Hamlet is demonstrating a distrust of women that he has shown throughout the play.

• He doesn't trust Ophelia, whom he suspects is spying on him (she is, it turns out, though not necessarily willingly)

Symbol of Distrust

• Hamlet takes as the symbol of this distrust is her use of makeup - the 'paint' in the quote.

• The paint also is a reference to the clown paint Yorick would have e worn.

• That a woman would ' cover up' her true face with a more carefully designed, or artful face, seems dishonest to him and becomes a metaphor for other, more significant t dishonesty.

• What he sees when he beholds Yorick's skull, however, is that beneath that dishonesty is some truth Ophelia can't escape.

• In other words, he sees in the skull some evidence that he is right, and Ophelia is wrong and wants to use that skull to score points in his relationship.

Hamlet's Resolve

• Finally, what we see in this quote is Hamlet arriving (or almost arriving) at the acceptance of his own death that will allow him to avenge his father.

• Looking at Yorick, Hamlet sees that all life is lost, one way or another, and that he can't protect his life by 'playing it safe' and not avenging his father's death.

• For the rest of the play, the audience sees a more courageous, defiant Hamlet - a young prince who knows what he must do and is less afraid of his own demise.

Multiple Choice

Who is this person, 'Yorick' mentioned in this quote?

• Hamlet's first love

• Hamlet's father, who he must avenge

• A jester in the court of Hamlet's father.

• Hamlet's brother, who died young

Multiple Choice

What is Hamlet's reaction to seeing Yorick's skull?

• He is so in love that he wants to marry Ophelia right away

• He becomes happy and nostalgic about Yorick's antic

• He is so amused that he laughs himself sick

• He is horrified to the point he is physically ill

Multiple Choice

Which of Yorick's personal qualities make his death so disturbing to Hamlet?

• His intelligence

• His physical strength

• His animation and spirit

• His courage

Multiple Choice

Seeing Yorick's skull helps Hamlet resolve to:

• Get in shape

• Go to church

• Avenge his father's death

• Go to church

Multiple Choice

Which of the women in his life does Hamlet believe is spying on him?

• None of the answers are correct

• His sister

• His mother

• Ophelia