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How Does Yorick's Skull Act As A Symbol Of Death In Hamlet

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Yorick’s Skull and Death The main focus of this paper will be Yorick’s skull from The Tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. This paper will address the question: How does Yorick’s skull act as a symbol of death within Hamlet? Yorick’s skull functions as a tool to help those who see it understand death. For instance, Yorick’s skull helps Hamlet come to the realization that death eliminates the differences between people. The hierarchical structure of society is illusory and ultimately crumbles at the end of life. Yorick’s skull triggers memories of Yorick’s life within Hamlet. Hamlet describes some when he describes how Yorick “…bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is!”(Shakespeare 1491) He is …show more content…

Hamlet describes the death of Alexander the Great by exclaiming “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust, the dust to earth…” (Shakespeare 1492) Hamlet is reciting the sequence of events that all dead experience. This demonstrates that even Alexander the Great undergoes the same processes as a dirty beggar or anyone else. He also brings up another mentionable name in the form of Imperious Caser. Hamlet is essentially describing that, despite whatever role one played in life, grand or minuscule, one will eventually be dead. This is quite a compelling notion because all of Hamlet is based around death. As G. Wilson Knight, an English literary critic and academic, affirms “…graveyard meditations, though often beautiful, are remorselessly realistic.”(1) This is intriguing because it shows how Hamlet’s interaction with Yorick’s skull has allowed him to have a more realistic view on life instead of relying upon ghosts and prophecies. The skull opens Hamlet’s mind to the physical world and distracts him from the metaphysical. His concept of death has grown deeper. Of course, before this point Hamlet was sporadic and acting upon madness. Knight explains that “Hamlet whose mind is obsessed with hideous thoughts of the body’s decay” (1) was still only limited to his mind. He never had any tangible way to see

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