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Playlist Shakespeare's Hamlet: Shmoopversations 16 videos

0
Shakespeare's Hamlet 1 Act 1
319 Views

Crack open your copy of Hamlet, because it's time to discuss what happens during the course of Act I. Sadly, it has nothing to do with ham. 

1
Shakespeare's Hamlet 2 The Setting
205 Views

What is the setting of Hamlet, and how does it contribute to the overall feel of the play?

2
Shakespeare's Hamlet 3 To Thine Own Self
62 Views

What does the line "to thine own self be true" mean in the context of the play? And why do so many people use it as their senior yearbook quote? Pe...

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Shakespeare's Hamlet 13 Yorick's Skull 88 Views


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Description:

Who is Yorick, and why is Hamlet so obsessed with his skull? Seriously, if Hammy had an Instagram account, it'd be all skull pictures...

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak Shakespeare's hamlet yorick skull Alas Who

00:12

is your iq and why his hamlet so obsessed with

00:15

his skull So yorick is this court jester that that

00:19

hamlet me when he was a kid and now he's

00:22

finding he's encountering his scroll holding him up and kind

00:25

of like speaking to the school right about the nature

00:27

of death and how we're all going to end in

00:29

death And in some ways this is a classic clown

00:31

moment because the jester's air always about drawing our attention

00:34

toe the vanity of our contemporary concerns right They're always

00:38

kind of saying like you take yourself so seriously but

00:41

actually you're a fool just like i'm a fool or

00:43

like you take yourself so seriously but soon you're gonna

00:45

be dead and here hamlet is showing how did the

00:48

other side of it where he's talking to the jester

00:51

and thinking of it not as a comic moment but

00:52

as a legitimately a tragic one So we can think

00:54

about him kind of looking into the skull as a

00:57

classic conflict between these two ways of dealing with the

01:00

inevitability of death either by kind of like taking a

01:03

kind of stoic distance and like maybe even having fun

01:07

or like really feeling like like your whole life is

01:11

determined by death in some important way Why does hamlet

01:16

compare york tau alexander the great So he says that

01:19

like alexander the great and you're both going to return

01:22

to dust right So it's again about the vanity of

01:24

thinking that you have more of a name or less

01:27

of the names This idea that we're kind of recuperating

01:29

all the people who died who weren't seen as being

01:33

as important and actually thinking about how how their life

01:36

is as as important as substantial as any political leaders

01:43

What purpose is the grave diggers served during this scene

01:46

So the grave digger is There also is a kind

01:48

of bumbling clown figure reminding us of how different that

01:54

life in the castle is from life everywhere else So

01:56

whereas they're all kind of obsessed with this infighting there's

01:59

a grave digger who's actually just like earning his wade

02:02

So so again like like the contrast between your iq

02:05

and alexander the great We had this contrast between hamlet

02:08

and the grave digger and we're kind of challenge to

02:11

think about whether or not they're there stories or have

02:15

equal importance right Whether the comic has equal weight as

02:18

the tragic because the grave digger again is this comic

02:21

figure like yorick being contrast it with the tragic figure

02:24

cream ones Who is your iq and why his hamlet

02:31

so obsessed with his skull Why does hamlet compare york

02:35

tau alexander the great What purpose is the grave digger 00:02:38.648 --> [endTime] served during this scene

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