ENGL 1080 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Jester, Gravedigger, Aquilegia
5 Oct 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Marks the turning point for hamlet: thinks about the commonness of death and vanity of life, remember yorick as a jester and considers what"s become of alexander the great"s body. Hamlet concludes that both men met the same end and turned into dust: new, more mature acceptance of common human fate, hamlet is contemplative but not suicidal or anguished. Some critics suggest that hamlet literally ages in this scene: when the play begins, hamlet is a university student (pretty young, by the time hamlet is in the graveyard, act v, he is 30 years old, evidence: First clown says he"s been a gravedigger since the very day that young hamlet was born and then a few lines later he says hes been a sexton in denmark for. Possible that shakespeare has messed it up but hamlet aging could be a reflection of his new, more mature outlook on life and death.
