How do the scene with the gravediggers and hamlet’s scene with yorick’s skull illustrate the broader theme of hamlet’s preoccupation with death?

The scene with the gravediggers illustrates the play’s broader theme of mortality. In the first part of the scene, two gravediggers discuss the burial of people who have taken their own lives and how the Christian system is flawed in disallowing suicide. Hamlet and Horatio then look at the remains of the many dead bodies and reflect on the certainty of death for all people. In death, we are all the same. For example, a woman may go to great ends to beautify herself in life, but her remains after death may look like any ordinary person’s remains. Hamlet and Horatio also discuss how a person's greatness ceases to matter when he or she dies. Hamlet refers to Alexander the Great being buried and becoming one with the sand.

Yorick’s skull acts as a symbol of death. With the skull in his hand, Hamlet reminisces about the time he spent with Yorick. Now, in death, Yorick is nothing more than a pile of bones, with no wit, humor, or intelligence. Earlier in the play, Hamlet spent much time mulling over death and wondering what came after death. Yorick’s skull answers that question for Hamlet.

The skull and the graveyard directly contrast with the life Hamlet led in the castle. In Elsinore, Hamlet’s mother and Claudius tried to make him forget about his father's death. In the graveyard, he has the freedom to contemplate death.

PLATO: The scene with the gravediggers illustrates the play’s broader theme of mortality. In the first part of the scene, two gravediggers discuss the burial of people who have taken their own lives and how the Christian system is flawed in disallowing that. Hamlet and Horatio then look at the remains of the many dead bodies and reflect on the certainty of death for all people. In death, we are all the same. For example, a woman may go to great ends to beautify herself in life, but her remains after death may look like any ordinary person’s remains. Hamlet and Horatio also discuss how a person's greatness ceases to matter when he or she dies. Hamlet refers to Alexander the Great being buried and becoming one with the sand.

The skull and the graveyard directly contrast with the life Hamlet led in the castle. In Elsinore, Hamlet’s mother and Claudius tried to make him forget about his father's death. In the graveyard, he has the freedom to contemplate death.

Explanation:

sentences vary by structure as well as by function. there are compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences.

simple sentence

i like to read.

a simple sentence has one independent clause.

compound sentence

i like to read, and i also like to write.

a compound sentence includes more than one independent clause, connected by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, nor, or, so, or yet).

complex sentence

i prefer to read books that are bestsellers.

a complex sentence includes one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. (a dependent clause is one that cannot stand alone.) types of dependent clauses include relative clauses (i kicked the boy who pinched me), adverb clauses (i am going home now because i have a curfew), and noun clauses (i don't know what to do next).

compound-complex sentence

although i prefer to read current bestsellers, i do like to read old agatha christie mysteries, and i also like some 20th-century science fiction.

compound-complex sentences take a bunch of clauses (multiple independent clauses, and one or more dependent clauses) and toss them together like a salad. although these sentences take practice to write in a grammatically correct fashion, they can hold a tremendous amount of meaning, and are common in academic writing.