Another reason that Hamlet shares light-hearted humor with the gravedigger is precisely to lessen this burdensome knowledge that death comes to all, whether it is Caesar or Yorick. Hamlet cannot escape the wickedly punning reminder of this same skull, that all skulls look frightfully the same (Nardo 113).
The gravediggers serve as a pseudo-chorus (such as those seen in Oedipus Rex or Antigone) that comments on the main thoughts of the character or the main action of the scene. The gravediggers note especially the Ophelia s suicide and the mannerisms and laws of the aristocrats (Boyce 225). The gravedigger also has the song that he sings. The final touch that the gravedigger adds to the scene comes when the gravedigger speaks of Hamlet s voyage to England, saying, There the men are as mad as he (5.1.159-60). One can imagine the gravedigger winking to the English groundlings here. Finally, in this scene, the funeral priest allows only virgin crants (5.1.240), meaning virgin garland, to decorate a virgin s grave. Crants is an unusual German word (Nardo 110). Shakespeare chose this word deliberately, as it bears an odd phonetic resemblance to Rosencrantz. Like the king s pun on gilt/guilt and Guildenstern, Shakespeare connects some minor characters with the main action of the play.
Elizabethan playgoers were more sensitive to wordplay and placed a much higher value on it as an expression of wit (Charney 288). For this reason, Shakespeare provides comic relief. He does this to satisfy the audience, but he also uses comic relief to pause the emotional rollercoaster. However, Shakespeare is making certain assumptions. He assumes that the audience is familiar with the play and thus engages their knowledge of what is to come. Another reason for the use of humor in Hamlet is because Elizabethan dram is full of interplay between the stage and the pit (Bloom 44). The groundlings would not be satisfied watching high-class drama. They need to be entertained, and Shakespeare understands that he must appease all viewers. Hamlet s very use and style of language, especially the use of the pun, the dialogue with the minor character Polonius, and the graveyard scene reveals intentions and plans through the mode of comic relief.
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