The ‘gravedigger scene’ in Act 5 of Hamlet is a representation of Hamlet’s existential anxieties as an extension of his melancholy: Hamlet considers the nature of morality and the significance of man as he is confronted with the skull of a former friend who once had form in the physical world but now reduced to an insignificant carcass of skull and bones.
The insignificance of man after death is initially portrayed through the frivolity of the clowns as they dig a grave: ‘[Throws up a skull]’, ’[Throws up another skull]’ and “Has this fellow no feeling of his business? A sings in grave-making”. These gestures of disrespect become a mark of the insignificance of the person that was which prompts accumulating questions that reflect the existential
The insignificance of man after death is initially portrayed through the frivolity of the clowns as they dig a grave: ‘[Throws up a skull]’, ’[Throws up another skull]’ and “Has this fellow no feeling of his business? A sings in grave-making”. These gestures of disrespect become a mark of the insignificance of the person that was which prompts accumulating questions that reflect the existential