Generally a graveyard is a symbol of death, but Shakespeare made it a confrontation of Hamlet to the reality of life (Is not it the confrontation of us, the audiences, also?). Clearly, it is a variation to the monotonic castle setting. It is the only scene that takes place outside the palace, and very uncommonly, in a cemetery. The setting of the play is very remarkable. They must endure and obey they may marvel and comment. Such scenes have the special importance in a social context of the main action, for the fortunes of the people follow those of their governors although these people rarely understand the ins and outs of what is happening to them. The two clowns give us comments on public events of ordinary working people who understand little what is happening in the palace. The gravediggers become the commentators of the entire play from a third point angle.
#Hamlet skull full#
In fact, they do not joke, but the audiences laugh at their conversation that is full of unconscious irony. The comic conversation does not derive from their special power to make men laugh, rather from their innocence the uneducated, rustic and simple mind of these two commoner are the very source of their unintentional jokes. We have to notice that the gravediggers are designated as clowns in the stage direction and prompts and it is important to note that in Shakespeare’s time the word clown referred to a rustic or peasant, and did not mean that the person in question was funny or wore a costume. This scene is a sharp contrast to the other entire palace scenes through which we enter into the common world of general people where there is no conspiracy, hypocrisy, or any other complexity of upper class lives. After a long time of bloodshed, intrigue, and heavyweight witty debate, it is a comic relief for the audiences. On the contrary, this one is a scene of laughter, jokes, and comics. All the other scenes of the play are full of tension, gloomy, and full of very much complicated dialogues.
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The characteristic of the very scene is very different and unique one. Later, we will give a look to the comments by the other critics also.
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It is also important to see what impact it gives to the main plot of the play.
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the gravedigger’s part, Hamlet’s meditation, Ophelia’s funeral and so on. We have to look for why the very scene is set on the plot the characteristic, setting, and the intention of the scene should be examined and to do so, we have to study it part by part, e.g. Therefore, it requires a close and careful study to examine the significance of the scene. It is the icon image of the play, as it is shown, ‘a man holding a human skull in his hand’, just as the ‘blooded dagger’ refers to Macbeth, another tragedy by Shakespeare. He gravedigger scene in Hamlet is one of the most analyzed, criticized, and commented ones in English literature. (Final) Class Roll: 8293 Department of English University of Chittagong University of Chittagong Submitted by: A.T.M.