This is my module 12 assignment submission, and this will be on an analysis of the Act V Scene 1 from Hamlet.
In this scene it features the burial of Ophelia and the starting fight between Laertes and Hamlet. But to start the scene off Shakespeare gives us a focus on the gravediggers. These commoners are forced to work for the wealthy rather than the upper-class doing their own dirty work. The gravediggers talk about how even though Ophelia killed herself, she is still getting a Christian burial. This would not have happened if she wasn’t part of the nobility or monarchy. The gravedigger plays another role in this scene as he is the only person that can argue with Hamlet on the prince’s level. The funny part of this is that the gravedigger doesn’t seem to know that the man he is speaking to is the prince. This again shows the divide between the noblemen and commoners, although Hamlet is socially superior to the gravedigger, they are equally intelligent.
The next part of this scene that we need to focus on is that Hamlet has spoken rather blithely about death and suicide himself. But when he is confronted with the reality of death, he’s disgusted by the facts of it and the stink of corruption and rot. This affects him differently than even facing his father’s ghost. The gravedigger helps Hamlet to see what it really means for life to come to an end, where it begins to fade from both physical and emotional memory. This really hits him when he holds Yorick’s skull in his hand, someone that he once knew and loved, now erased by death. He also is very puzzled seeing a man that is working to bury the dead, do his job happily.
All of the YouTube videos that I watched related to what I thought of the scene. That the gravediggers were bringing some humor as they talked about the unfairness of the nobles and monarchs. But the videos have also given me insight to how dramatic that scene had been as well, particularly with the fight between Laertes and Hamlet. I chose this scene because I liked how it showed the difference between how the commoners and the upper-class were regarded. Also the dark humor that the gravediggers created, made a light atmosphere before grave emotions later on in the scene.
Cows are Cool 