Grave Diggers in 5. 1.

1/27/2017

Hamlet spews out nihilistic conceits in 4.2. and 4.3., and continues to indulge in gallows humor in 5.1. until he wakes up to a new perspective toward afterlife while meditating on Yorick's skull. Since he pretty much moped around in suicidal thoughts, his awakening in 4.4 and 5.1 is so swift and surprising. Now Hamlet is ready to think and act like a king, even though he turns out to be a king we could have had but did not. At this point, the vulgarity, puns, and gallows humor are reassigned to the two grave diggers and one of them, the First Clown, seems to serve as the conventional fool who speaks out to the king (or prince).

First Clown argues that Adam was the first grave digger and grave digging is a noble profession because Adam had (a coat of) arms. Second Clown contends it only to receive an answer that Adam dug with his arms. Here "arms" serves as a pun.

These menial workers further undermine the arbitrary division of class by observing that a gallows maker builds the most durable monument in human history. It is not much different than saying all humans are common criminals and crooks. Hamlet's misanthropic rants seem to echo through the grave diggers' mouths.

No more wading through self-hatred and nihilism, Hamlet banters with the grave digger and plays on the word, "lie." At the beginning, they both use "lie" to mean "stay," but soon its meaning changes and now both start to use it in term of "being laid in the grave." Since both are alive, neither can claim the grave as his and each man starts to accuse the other of lying. This pun introduces a comic relief to the play and also alerts the viewer's attention to the owner of the grave--Ophelia.

6 Comments

Monica Orduna

2/12/2017 10:55:33

The constant change of meaning of the word "lie" during the conversation of the two grave-diggers create a well-used pun to express the comic relief that is know when is introduce a comic character or scene to "relieve" the tension in the tragedy of a play. The two characters get later to pointing out the death of Ophelia when Hamlet enters into the scene.

Adaylin Alvarez

2/16/2017 02:19:11

Since Hamlet is a very intense and dark show, Shakespeare had to incorporate some jokes in order to bring comic relief to the audience. Although it isn't appropriate to joke about lying in a grave at a cemetery while paying respects to a dead person, this kind of humor would fall under the category of dark humor because it is meant to be funny and allows the audience laugh freely without consequences.

Luis Villanueva 1-2A

2/16/2017 17:53:22

Adaylin you make a very great and interesting point that helps me really understand Shakespeares method when he wrote Hamlet. Hamlet is a very dark play and ends in a tragedy like most of his plays. Shakespeare needed to get the audience intrigued and in fact used dark humor because what was meant to be funny in reality when you think about it is very serious.

2/16/2017 17:46:06

The use of "lie" in the excerpt is a pun because all of them have a different meaning which I believe is the capture the reader/audiences attention. Shakespeare wanted to get the reader/audience engaged and therefore had to use puns to make it somewhat funny. I believe this shows that the outcome will result in death because throughout the play we see how the characters lie and manipulate each other which in the end causes the death of all the Danish court.

Melissa Menchaca 1/2A

2/16/2017 22:00:44

It is true that lie is used as a PU throughout the dialogue between the characters to mimic a sense of comic relief. Also, it shows how the characters themselves begin to lie and device one another throughout the play.

Roxanne Flores

3/8/2017 22:59:45

At first the two gravediggers are jokingly speaking of the grave and why would someone who committed suicide be buried in a religious manner, that makes no sense. I think there is dark humor also because the gravedigger is saying how the grave he is digging is his and Hamlet claims that he is "lying" in it which has double meaning. This may show how the characters aren't considering that they are speaking jokingly at a site where somebody will be buried.

Grave Diggers in 5. 1.

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