Hamlet Test Essay

Catarina Sousa

Mr. Perez

AP English

20 October 2011

            In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it is shown how the characters each have their own actions and phrases that lead us to believe who they really are. Whether they kill themselves or each other, they have no other reason, but power. Thus, unnecessary sword fights and the power of seeing paranormal sights give hints to who Hamlet is and will become. Each scene has its purpose, for example the grave digging scene is lead to believe to be the most important. For the purpose of comedy, Shakespeare adds comic relief before he takes the big plunge to the dramatic ending.

In one scene, including the gravediggers he has two “clowns” have an argument about the people of the town. In the beginning he talks about their rumors they have heard, such as Ophelia’s claimed “suicide”. The clown states how people in the town only start rumors, and they don’t even know for a fact that this suicide really happened. One clown starts questioning the funeral, asking if it is a Christian burial. Since suicide is considered a sin in the Christian religion, she doesn’t deserve a proper burial service like all the other God-followers. But, considering who Ophelia’s father is and the power he does possess, the King allowed her to get buried properly without over analyzing the situation.

Ergo, Polonius’ social standard saves them from an embarrassing funeral, who no one would attend to ruin their own life standards. Shakespeare is trying to show how being who you are really affects the way you are treated. The ones who can’t help themselves but don’t commit sins get tossed on the floor and get eaten by bugs and on passing animals. While those power-hungry who say they believe in God, commit sins profusely and still get buried under God’s name. Shakespeare shows us what social standards have become.

 Since the gravediggers started digging as Hamlet and Harotio, Hamlet’s only trustworthy friend, started having a ball while they completed their necessary task. You may be asking, how is it possible gravediggers could sing while burying someone who once had a beating heart? Well, Hamlet asked the same question, he pondered as they threw skulls from the dirt out into the open. He said to Horatio, “That skull had a tongue in it and could sing once. How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain’s jawbone, that did the first murder! It might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'erreaches, one that would circumvent God, might it not?”(Scene 5, pg.121, Line 77) Hamlet is getting frustrated with the gravediggers just tossing around skulls that once belonged to living breathing humans around. He questions if it could have been a politician who could talk his way out of everything, which is quite the talent. Or the skull of a courier, who would flatter the king with all the tricks he knew. Hamlet imagines these people who once were and are no longer.

 Hamlet sees how fragile things are and could go away so quickly. He realized how depressing it is also, and he thinks what is the point of living if you could lose everything you built up for in a second. The allusions behind Adam are that the gravediggers are saying how the Christians hold up Adam’s true profession. They state how he doesn’t have arms, or “ever bore arms”. They ask how he could do a task without having the ability to do it. This reminds me of them both, considering they take their melancholy job quite lightly. The allusion behind Alexander the Great is that hamlet questions if he really looked like everyone else on earth, or preferably in his grave.  This shows us that even the famous and almighty such as Alexander will decay and rot just like we all will one day.

Overall, this gravedigger scene started as a comedy to relieve some of the eager minds, but ended up confusing Hamlet as to why he is here on earth. He starts to realize we are the same since we die the same. This scene over turns into an existentialistic point of view of he tried to give the skulls a face and name. By that, Hamlet questions himself. Since the beginning of the book, he has been indecisive towards all his decisions. Not once could he do something that he truly believed was right. He questioned the time, the people, and himself. If you cannot decide for yourself, then don’t have such strong opinions that will never follow through. The book screams indecisive standard-loving snobs. They all deserved to die in the end, since for most, power is what caused their death, and power was what they lived for in the first place.