In what sense does the “gravediggers’ scene” serve as a dramatic relief in Hamlet?

Answer

In what sense does the “gravediggers’ scene” serve as a dramatic relief in Hamlet? [2020] ✪✪✪

In Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) “Hamlet,” the “gravediggers’ scene” gives dramatic relief to the play. This scene occurs in Act 5, Scene 1. It is full of dark humor and clever talk between the two gravediggers and Prince Hamlet. After many serious and emotional scenes, the scene gives both the audience and the characters a short mental rest.

Dramatic Relief: In the gravediggers’ scene, the two gravediggers make jokes about dying. Their light conversation about graves and dying feels very different from the sad and serious mood in the rest of the play. So, the light mood of this scene gives the audience a dramatic relief.

Hamlet and the Gravedigger: Dramatic relief also comes when Hamlet asks whose grave the man is digging. The gravedigger jokingly says that it is his own grave.

“HAMLET: Whose grave’s this, sirrah?

GRAVEDIGGER: Mine, sir.”

Hamlet jokes that it must be true, since the man is standing inside it. Hamlet then asks him to answer seriously and say whose grave it really is. The gravedigger gives a funny but deep answer. He says the grave belongs to no man or woman, but to someone who used to be a woman before she died. Hamlet finds this joke both funny and annoying at the same time. The gravedigger does not know that he is talking to Prince Hamlet. He says that the young prince has gone to England to get back his sanity. Then he adds a joke that in England, being mad does not matter much because everyone there is a little mad.

In short, the “gravediggers’ scene” gives a comic pause and dramatic relief in the middle of a very dark and emotional play. It helps the audience relax for a moment and think about death in a calmer, more thoughtful way, just before the tragic events begin.