Many of the most prominent Shakespearean works are tragic literary pieces. In addition to the scenes of revelation, betrayal, feuds, suicides, and homicides, there are always a few comic elements sprinkled in the mix. Today, many consider Shakespeare a master of using comedic devices for comic relief and to juxtapose tragic scenes in numerous plays. Hamlet is no exception. Such a comic element exists in act five, scene one, in the form of the gravedigger, or “clown”. Shakespeare's use of the gravedigger in this scene conveys a lighthearted tone, despite the weight of the topic discussed. Furthermore, the gravedigger takes on the role of the Shakespearean fool, a witty, extraneous character commonly used as comic relief in other Shakespearean …show more content…
Therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath sat on her and finds it Christian burial. GRAVEDIGGER: How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense? (V. i. 1-7). Here the gravediggers contemplate the morality of suicide and whether it should be a sin through Ophelia’s death. Though the Hamlet ponders the same moral dilemma earlier in his, “To be or not to be” speech (III. i. 64-98), this exchange comically reintroduces the subject, and this time ponders it jovially by explaining a humorously unrealistic situation: “Here stands the man; good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is (will he, nill he) he goes; mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself” (V. i. 16-19). Moreover, the gravediggers make jokes about their profession in this scene, comparing themselves to carpenters and claiming they are better craftsmen because “The houses [a grave-maker] makes lasts till doomsday” (V. i.60-61). This line exhibits the gravediggers’ desensitization to the subject of death, but understandably so, since their profession deals with the dead every day. In this way, the gravedigger scene reinforces and readdresses earlier topics normally thought to be dark, and lightens