It shows Hamlet's growing preoccupation with death. In particular, it illustrates how it makes fools of us all, bringing each and every one of us down to the same level. Yorick was once a professional fool, "a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy." Yet now look at him. He's just a skull full of dirt, decaying in the grave.
Hamlet uses the example of the deceased court jester to reflect on the transience and impermanence of our lives upon this earth. It doesn't matter who we are or what we do in life, we will one day leave this earth behind for good. In the democracy of the dead, we are all equal; Yorick's skull is virtually indistinguishable from Alexander the Great's. We can try and distract ourselves from our inevitable end—this is what Yorick did with all this tricks, jokes and songs—but distractions they remain. They cannot substitute for a frank, courageous confrontation with our own inescapable mortality.
Friday, July 15, 2016
What is the purpose of the Yorick speech?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
There are a plethora of rules that Jonas and the other citizens must follow. Again, page numbers will vary given the edition of the book tha...
-
The only example of simile in "The Lottery"—and a particularly weak one at that—is when Mrs. Hutchinson taps Mrs. Delacroix on the...
-
A good thesis statement presents a claim (an interpretive stance on a story that can be defended using textual evidence) and is a position w...
-
The given two points of the exponential function are (2,24) and (3,144). To determine the exponential function y=ab^x plug-in the given x an...
-
What does the hot air balloon symbolize? To the Assad son who buys the hot air balloon, it symbolizes a kind of whimsy that he can afford. B...
-
The play Duchess of Malfi is named after the character and real life historical tragic figure of Duchess of Malfi who was the regent of the ...
-
Allie’s baseball mitt is extremely important to Holden in The Catcher in the Rye. It is a symbol of Allie since it was important to his brot...
No comments:
Post a Comment