In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the returning prince finds that his scene of sanity is gone in picking up the broken pieces of his life. He tries to coup with it all, facing the reality of his father being dead, dethroned by his uncle, and losing the love of his life Ophelia. What more could a man take in staring death in the face and questioning it. As human beings we all have a purpose on this earth, to find what we are destine to do. Hamlet reaches acceptance of his situation. Wondering if he will be known for being a great avenger, or the son who didn’t avenge his father’s death.
In act V scene I Hamlet has an internal conflict, trying to find the link between the living and the dead. When he encounters yorick’s Skull in the grave yard, he reminisces on how he was once a court Jester. He then elates that to life by saying: “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam and why of that loam might they not stop a beer barrel? Imperious Ceaser, dead and turned to clay might stop a hole to keep the wind away.” He recognizes that Death becomes an equalizer of social status and of people well-known, because in the end we all perish. Yorick’s skull forces Hamlet to reflect on his meaning of life. Another point in the act is when the church cemetery felt that Ophelia shouldn’t be buried near the church because of the suicide. Hamlet thought that it doesn’t matter since we are going to all turn into dust.
In conclusion Act V scene I serves to develop the act as a whole. This part especially allows Hamlet to find the meaning of death and help to guide him whether to take action or not.
The symbols on the paper represent act V scene I in Hamlet, because It mostly talked about death. I have a skeleton near a barrel to show how hamlet thought about life after a person dies. This represents the thought that people will become dust like he said in his quote, meaning to become unknown after amount of time being buried. I put Ophelia’s grave near the church showing how they thought it was bad to put her there because of a suicide. The figure to be or not to be is there because of his thought of life and death and to avenge or not to avenge his fathers death.
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