HAMLET 5.1
Annotation Guidelines
ACT V, SCENE 1
Hamlet & The Gravedigger / Ophelia’s Burial
1) (lines 1-20) Here the gravedigger and his pal have a mock debate on what serious point?
2) (lines 41-50) You can see here the ‘comic relief’ of this scene > what “does well to those who do
ill”? And why is this thing so “strong”?
3) (lines 69-70) Link Horatio’s words here about the Gravedigger to Hamlet’s earlier words to his
mother in Act IV.
4) (lines 100-115) How are Hamlet’s lines here particularly Existential?
5) (lines 138-140) Back to that jokester, the Gravedigger… How does he justify his remark that he
is burying ‘neither man, nor woman’?
6)
(lines 150-165) Does the Gravedigger know whom he is speaking to? Provide proof.
7) (lines 190-202) If you knew anything about Hamlet coming into this play, you probably had an
image of Hamlet holding up a skull and talking to it or contemplating it… Here is that scene!
Note whose skull this is and what experience Hamlet had with this person.
8) (lines 209-211) Link these lines back to Hamlet’s earlier lines in Act IV about the King becoming
nothing more than food for worms.
9) (lines 212-224) Existentialist or not? Offer proof for your argument.
Hamlet v. Laertes: Showdown at the Gravesite!
10) (lines 248-262) How does Laertes react to hearing of Ophelia’s death?
11) How does the emotional pitch of this scene (lines 248-262) prepare us for what comes next with
Hamlet in lines 270-280?
12) (lines 282-301) Is this ‘Nemean lion’ Hamlet or ‘in his head’, soliloquizing Hamlet? Support
your argument with specific phrases.