Alas, Poor Yorick – Mortality in Hamlet
An Analysis of Shakespeare's Famous Gravedigger Speech
Jan 4, 2009
Act Five, Scene One of Hamlet contains one of the most famous monologues in all of Shakespeare's work. During the scene, two gravediggers, preparing for Ophelia's funeral, exhume the skull of Yorick, Elsinore's court jester, with whom Hamlet often played in his youth. The sight of the clown's remains causes Hamlet to discuss with Horatio the nature of death; his famous speech begins with the lines, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio." Holding the skull, Hamlet reflects upon the contrast between his memories of Yorick and the bones in his hands. The moment is so dramatic that the image of Hamlet, Yorick's skull in hand, has become a cultural icon. But the words themselves are similarly emblematic, exploring the universal themes of death and mortality that guide the tragedy.
Hamlet's Reactions to Death
Hamlet's reaction to the sight of Yorick's remains is surprisingly physical; though Hamlet is chiefly a cerebral character, he feels a tangible sensation when he looks upon his former friend. The thought of the deceased jester is nauseating to the prince; he tells Horatio "my gorge rims at it." This reaction is evidence of a significant transformation in Hamlet's character. Earlier in the play, when he had the opportunity to murder a praying Claudius, he backed down based on his prediction of a blissful afterlife for his nemesis.
By Act Five, Hamlet's ideas about death have changed. As he looks upon Yorick's skull, he concludes that everyone will eventually decompose as the jester has. "Let her paint an inch thick," Hamlet says of Ophelia, "to this favor she must come." Despite all human efforts to evade death, it is inevitable. Hamlet is now experiencing death not in a distant and abstract way, as he does in the "To be or not to be?" soliloquy. At this moment in the play, Hamlet interacts with death both physically and directly. It is this revelation that allows the drama to move forward: with a more complete understanding of death, Hamlet is prepared to both kill and die for his beliefs.
Memento Mori
Hamlet's speech echoes popular themes of Shakespeare's time. The events Hamlet describes present a picture of youth. Yorick's life, as Hamlet understands it, was a colorful collection of games, jokes and songs. By contrast, in death, Yorick is colorless, a macabre spectacle that unsettles Hamlet's mind.
These conflicting elements speak to a common artistic motif of the Renaissance: the theme of vanitas. According to many Renaissance artists, the splendor of life was ultimately transient. Wealth and status were meaningless in the grave. A common Renaissance sentiment was "memento mori," Latin for "remember you will die." Hamlet's reflections on Yorick substantiate this contemporary belief: the cheerful jester has been reduced to an unsmiling set of bones.
Hamlet, The Living, and the Dead
Hamlet's reflections on Yorick illuminate aspects of his own character as well as popular philosophical questions of Shakespeare's time. The image of Hamlet staring into Yorick's lifeless eyes deserves its spot in the English canon; this scene shows many facets of one of literature's most complete Renaissance men.
