When thinking about objects in Shakespeare’s Hamlet one particular scene comes to mind. Yorick’s skull, which originally appears in Act 5 Scene 1, turned into the iconic symbol of the tragedy as a whole. Hamlet is usually seen on DVD covers, book covers and performance posters in the iconic kneeling position as he holds up the skull.

This skull turns into more than human bones for the Prince of Denmark. While Hamlet holds the skull he begins to examine how the jester’s life no longer has any meaning because it no longer exists. He then takes it a step farther and discusses how no ones life has more meaning or importance than anyone else’s because all human beings end up as this skull. He emphasizes this when he asks Horatio: “Dost thou think Alexander looked o’ this fashion i’ the earth?” (Shakespeare 5.144). Here, Hamlet realizes that all people, noble or not, return to these “base uses” and become nothing more than dust and clay. In comparing the life of Alexander the Great with the songs and jokes of court jester, Hamlet diminishes both to meaningless human lives that both culminate in death. The realization that death comes to all humans seems to definitively prove to the prince that not one human life matters.

At this moment the skull serves as something like a catalyst for Hamlet’s actions. Once he realizes that death is a universal truth for all of humankind, Hamlet easily disregards the idea of an afterlife. This overwhelming realization seems to prove to him that every human’s soul, regardless of actions or social status, will end up as meaningless dust. With this in mind, Hamlet can finally take up his task without any thought towards the preservation of his own spiritual sanctity. Yorick’s skull ultimately changes Hamlet’s entire way of thinking. The question of “To be or not be” no longer matters because whatever answer he may choose, his life will always end with his body being committed to the earth. Shakespeare then emphasizes this idea that life itself is meaningless for Hamlet by following the scene with the skull immediately with Ophelia’s funeral.

As the procession of nobles move past Hamlet and the bones of the court jester it solidifies the idea that no amount of noble blood, good deeds or forgiveness of sins can save them from turning into dust and dirt. Yorick’s skull reveals this truth to both Hamlet and the audience as the same time. In Shakespeare’s time, the Black Death was devastating the population of Europe and bodies were littering the streets of London. With this scene, Shakespeare clearly illustrates to the nobles and the groundlings that they will all meet the same end. In a way, this scene unites the social classes of Elizabethan England behind the message that all human life ends in the same way and is, therefore, meaningless. On a personal note, Shakespeare lost his only son to the Plague, which may have inspired this depressing outlook on life and his emphasis on death in this particular tragedy.

Yorick’s skull not only serves as a catalyst for Hamlet and the action of the play, but it also negates the famous question of being by emphasizing the expansive meaninglessness of life. Shakespeare uses Hamlet to examine the meaning of life in an unconventional way. This iconic object proves to both the protagonist and the author that life has no meaning because it all leads to the same place: a grave.