What was the point of the "Yorick's skull" scene in Hamlet? Like, it hasn't anything to do with the story, and it's about a character that the audience dosnt see or hear of before or after the scene.
What's the point of my life?
>>7812995
He's talking about how funny and jovial Yorick was in life while holding his skull
its a reminder of human mortality
Lol. It's like you haven't even read IJ (Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace*).
*pic related
>>7812995
>it hasn't anything to do with the story, and it's about a character that the audience dosnt see or hear of before or after the scene
I am genuinely embarrassed to have never really considered this before.
Shakespeare is well-beyond the time of the morality play, so I guess it's a display of genuine human frailty a la >>7813019, rather than some indictment of grossness or indulgence on the part of a jester, as it could have been in earlier time.
jesus christ, this thread
>>7812995
fun question to consider: how did he know it was Yorrick's skull in what's presumably something like a communal grave?
Because the groundlings were drunk and the skull helps them understand that yorick is dead.
>>7812995
desu it was so the clowns had a bit part in the play. You had to work most of the troupe in.
so David Foster Walrus could reference it 400 years later
>the interlude between ophelia and her dad and everyone else dying
>scene about death not having a point
yorick was the only person he trusted when he was young
yorick was the court jester, in Shakespeare the jester/fool is the voice of reason, while the gravediggers play the role of the fool in the play
hamlet speaking for the jester is implying that reason has died literally and figuratively when the only thing hamlet says as the jester are the better times
Hamlin just wanted to be goofy with a skull lmao
>>7812995
Yorick represents the Viking kingdom of Jorvick, which had experienced a decline previous to Hamlet's birth.
http://www.viking.no/e/england/york/rulers_of_jorvik.html
It's tempting to view the play as occurring directly after Edmund Ironside's play 'War Hath Made All Friends'.... King Hamlet Sr. would then be King Harald, and King Claudius would then represent King Cnut.
If Hamlet returns to Denmark in 1050, then the jester Yorick would have died in 1027, a year before Cnut/Claudius took Norway... Yet Cnut's son couldn't hold Norway for long, and this might be why Shakespeare is inveighing against the character Claudius/Cnut.
>>7815877
This would mean that Fortinbras is partly seeking revenge for Eric Bloodaxe, who died in 954.
Hamlet may be sympathizing with Fortinbras's motives, even as he prepares to kill Claudius and mount a war against him.
>>7813676
The first clown (the gravediggers who know the identity of, it appears, most of the graves) gets Hamlet to guess who the skull belongs to and reveals that it was the king's jester.
If Yorick does represent Jorvik, then we have an early avatar representing York in Shakespeare, before the start of the History Plays.
http://youtu.be/Vk0Qytn6iQM
>>7815877
DUDE TORQUATO TASSO LMAO
>>7816002
Hmm?
>>7812995
after dying we're all the same pile of bones so nothing matters in the end
>>7816006
I think it's a reference to when Pynchon was allegedly visited /lit/. It's a memey compliment if anything
