Hamlet Group

Question:

jonesca27
jonesca27
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What does Shakespeare accomplish dramatically by beginning the last scene of "Hamlet" in a graveyard?

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Posted by jonesca27 on Monday October 20, 2008 at 12:21 PM and tagged with graveyard, hamlet, setting.

Answers:


  1. amy-lepore Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Shakespeare achieves several things:

    1. Young Hamlet is forced to think about mortality--the skull might just as well be Yorick's, the jester whose lips he used to kiss and on whose lap he used to sit.

    2.  Young Hamlet discovers that Ophelia is dead when her funeral procession marches through the graveyard.

    3.  Shakespeare gets the chance to once again foreshadow conflict between Young Hamlet and Laertes as they exchange words in Ophelia's grave.

    4. By beginning the scene in the graveyard, Shakespeare prepares us for the countless deaths that we will witness before the Act is over.

    Remember, too, that the graveyard is a gloomy place, but that the beginning lines with the two gravediggers are comical for a purpose.  Tension has mounted, and will again mount, but their scene allows us to laugh a bit and relax before it again becomes serious and tense.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/act-v-scene-1-summary-analysis

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    Posted by amy-lepore on Monday October 20, 2008 at 1:33 PM