Hamlet Group

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banquo
Student

In Shakespeare's "Hamlet," who is Yorick?

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Posted by banquo on Friday January 26, 2007 at 11:32 AM and tagged with characters, hamlet, yorick.

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  1. gbeatty Teacher
    College - Freshman

    Who is Yorick now? Sadly, now he is nobody. He's dead.

    However, when he was alive, he was the king's jester. He was also someone Hamlet knew. When Hamlet encounters Yorick's skull, he plays with it, then uses it as an occasion to reflect on mortality. As such, Yorick's skull foreshadows Hamlet's own death. (See Act V for their interaction.)

    Greg

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/29225

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    Posted by gbeatty on Sunday February 25, 2007 at 9:34 AM

  2. kevinkirk
    kevinkirk Teacher

    Yorick was King Hamlet's jester. When Hamlet learns of this from the gravedigger/clown, this amazes him because of the fond and good memories of him and his personality, jokes, "merriment", etc. he had of him when he was a child.

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    Posted by kevinkirk on Friday March 23, 2007 at 9:46 AM

  3. revolution
    revolution Teacher
    Doctorate

    He is already dead before the starting of play begins. He was the jester (court fool), of the former king. Hamlet saw Yorick's skull during the graveyard scene when he was strolling with Horatio in Act V and during their conversation, he said:

    First Clown:
    A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! 'a pour'd a flagon
    of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was, sir,
    Yorick's skull, the King's jester.

    Hamlet:
    This? [Takes the skull]

    First Clown:
    E'en that.

    Hamlet:
    Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite
    jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a
    thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is!
    My gorge rises at it.

    It shows that Hamlet have a very strong relationship with Yorick and is very sad by looking at the skull as he still remembered the times they spend together, the vivid memories


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    Posted by revolution on Monday July 20, 2009 at 7:14 AM