The Graveyard Scene Act V, scene 1

To enjoy and understand comic relief in Act V as a device to heighten drama

To contrast the grief of Hamlet with that of Laertes and that of the Queen

All of us have burst into "nervous" laughter in very tragic moments. (Discuss a situation or two from students’ own lives.) What purpose does such comic action serve? When has Shakespeare used it successfully in another tragedy? Learning Activities

1. Read aloud of the entire scene .
2. What questions are the gravediggers debating at the beginning of the scene? ( You should not be misled by the designation clown, which is merely a Shakespearean convention.) What sense of class-consciousness do the gravediggers reveal? (It should be noted that these clowns are Elizabethan, not Danish, types.)
3. What kind of humor did Elizabethans engage in? (Quibbling, puns, and riddle-asking.) Find examples in this scene.
4. What is Hamlet’s immediate reaction to the singing of the gravediggers when he comes on the scene?

Journal
Write an entry to interpret Hamlet’s proverb: " The hand of little employment hath the daintier sense." What examples of satirical criticism can you find in Hamlet’s remarks to the gravedigger?

5. Show how the gravedigger outwits Hamlet in their bantering conversation.

Journal
How is the age of Hamlet fixed in this dialog? Must we believe that Hamlet is thirty years old (according to some critics) after reading this passage? Has Hamlet acted like a thirty-year-old man throughout the play? Why or why not? Discuss.

Medial Summary

What is the significance of Hamlet’s speech while he is holding the skull of Yorick? How have the Hamlet’s ideas about life and death changed? (Why not, at this point, have the class learn correctly the often misquoted line, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio"?) Why does Shakespeare have the conversation take a serious, almost morbid, turn at this point?

Homework:

Comic relief is to relieve audiences from the tragic tension. Do you agree? Explain." What other examples in literature use such "comic relief"?(Read an example in Twelfth Night ) How does the Rainbow scene in Silas Marner or any other scene that heightens drama in a piece of literature? What does Shakespeare hope to accomplish by introducing two clown grave diggers in a graveyard? (To heighten the tragic grief of Hamlet, Laertes, and Gertrude.)

6. Join an outside Discussion Forum to share your perspectives on Hamlet
7. Explain the debate between Laertes and the Priest. What emotional tone should Laertes exhibit? The Priest? Why/ At what point does Hamlet realize that the funeral is for Ophelia? How must he feel upon learning this? How sincerely had he loved the fair Ophelia?
8. Is the wrestling match and ranting argument between Laertes and Hamlet in Ophelia’s grave too melodramatic, or can the audience accept it as realistic? Discuss. Why were such scenes included in Elizabethan plays? Which of the two really loves Ophelia more?

9.How does Gertrude feel about the death of Ophelia? Does Claudius show any grief at all?

1.Stage directors and film produces have had to face several major problems in presenting this scene. What are these problems? Hoe would you, as a director or producer, solve them?

2.How does this scene, so skillfully placed in the play at this point, help Claudius? Work against Hamlet? If you were a member of an Elizabethan audience, would you (or would you not) expect Hamlet to avenge his father’s death? Why? What most likely event would you expect to happen? Why?

What does Shakespeare hope to accomplish by introducing two clown grave diggers in a graveyard? (To heighten the tragic grief of Hamlet, Laertes, and Gertrude.)