Act 5 Scene 1 Flashcards
Grave Scene (17 cards)
How do the clowns say that rank and class mean everything?
“If this had not been a gentlewoman, she would have been buried out a christian burial.” - had Ophelia not been in high rank, she would not have been buried in a church cemetery.
What do the clowns think about Ophelia’s death?
“Is she to be buried in christian burial when she wilfully seeks her own salvation?” - they think she committed suicide.
How do the grave-diggers refer to the grave-digging profession?
“the houses that he makes mast till doomsday”
Why is Hamlet confused at the grave-diggers singing? How does Horatio reply?
“Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that ‘a sings at grave-making?”
“Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness”
What does the grave-digger throw away?
“[throws up a skull]” “[throws up another skull]” - Yorick’s skull possibly
How does Hamlet criticise the way in which the grave-digger throws away the skulls?
“how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if ‘twere Cain’s jawbone”
What does Hamlet ponder about the skulls the grave-digger’s throwing up?
“Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillities, his cases, his tenures, his tricks?…Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt?”
How is there a play on words in Hamlet’s conversation with the grave-diggers?
“Who’s grave is this?”
“Mine”
“for my party i do not lie in’t, yet it is mine.”
How is there dramatic irony in the scene?
The grave-digger says that “he that is mad and sent into England… because ‘a was mad. ‘A shall recover his wits there”
What does Hamlet say to Yorick’s skull?
“Where be your gibes now? Your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merriment?”
What does Hamlet say about Alexander?
“Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till a’ find it stopping a bung-hole?… Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust”
What does the priest say about the funeral and Ophelia’s death?
“Her death was doubtful… she should in ground unsanctified been lodged till the last trumpet… yet here she is allowed her virgin crants”
“No more be done”
How does Laertes defend his sister against the priests’ criticism?
“Lay her i’ th’ earth: and from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring. I tell thee churlish priest, A minist’ring angel shall my sister be when thou liest howling”
How does Gertrude refer to Ophelia?
“I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife”
What happens when both Hamlet and Laertes jump into the grave?
“The devil take thy soul” “[grapples with him]” “I prithee take thy fingers from my throat, for, thou I am not splenitive and rash, yet have I something in me dangerous”
What does Hamlet say about his love for Ophelia?
“I loved Ophelia, forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum”
