What does yoricks skull represent

I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times. And now how abhorred in my imagination is it! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Hamlet, William Shakespeare, page line Function: Hamlet and Horatio venture into the graveyard and have a short conversation with the gravedigger.

Hamlet is filled with a kind of nihilism as he realizes that all humans return to dust, no matter how they live their lives on Earth—whether a man is good or evil, joyful or plaintive, common or noble, he will wind up in the ground.

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio—a fellow of infinite jest… Where be your gibes now? Plot Summary. All Themes Action and Inaction Appearance vs. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play.

Sign Up. Already have an account? Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. This phrase occurs in Hamlet , a popular play by William Shakespeare.

The main character Hamlet says this phrase when he is with Horatio, speaking to the gravedigger. He looks around the dead bodies and finds the skull of Yorick, the royal jester. It also shows that, though Hamlet seems to have gone mad, actually he is speaking highly meaningful sentences with Yorick. Hamlet makes this speech in the graveyard when he holds up the skull of Yorick. It is a best known and one of the more complex speeches in dramatic works.

Here, Hamlet considers human fate by comparing the skull of Yorick with other living human beings.