Unearthing Hamlet's Fool: A Metatheatrical Excavation of Yorick

Abstract

One would expect to see the Clown role in Hamlet go to a court jester; but in Elsinore, the king’s jester, Yorick, is dead. Shakespeare’s chosen Clown, the gravedigger, unearths his bones. Hamlet interprets humor and its relation to clowning, foolishness and madness. Lacking a formal Jester, the role passes figuratively through other characters, at different times and for different reasons. What those reasons are, who the new assumed fools are, and what it means to the play historically and creatively, I will explore later.