1. Who is Yorick and what is Hamlet's reaction to seeing his skull? Alas, poor Yorick!

I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy says Hamlet. Yorick was his fathers jester, a man with the knack of making people laugh, a man who had given Hamlet, then a child of six or seven, a thousand piggy-back rides. Hamlet tells Horatio that as a child he knew Yorick and is appalled at the sight of the skull. Hamlet feels his throat tighten. Hamlet says, my gorge rises at it, but instead of crying, he starts bantering with Yoricks skull. He asks Yorick where his flashes of merriment are and accuse him of being quite chop-fallen. In short, Hamlet has made a terrible pun at Yoricks expense and realizes forcefully that all men will eventually become dust, even great men like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. 2. Is the view of death that Hamlet articulates Christian? No. This is contrary to the Christian belief. Hamlet describes that death is unavoidable, even for those he considered worthy of praise, as compared to his enemies. He realizes forcefully that all men will eventually become dust, even great men like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. A notable minor motif that is developed in this act 5, scene 1 is Hamlets obsession with the physicality of death. Though many of his thoughts about death concern the spiritual consequences of dying, for instance, torment in the afterlife, he is nearly as fascinated by the physical decomposition of the body. 3. Who is being buried? Orphelia,, the daughter of Polonius and the sister of Laerters is being buried. 4. Why does Hamlet criticize Laertes's remarks? What is Hamlet's concern here? Laertes blames Hamlet for the death of Ophelia. Laeertes becomes infuriated with priest, who says that to give Ophelia a proper Christian burial would profane the dead. Laertes leaps into Ophelias grave to hold her once again in his arms. Grief-stricken and outraged, Hamlet bursts upon the company, declaring in agonized fury his own love for Ophelia. He leaps into the grave and fights with Laertes, saying that forty thousand brothers / Could not, with all their quantity of love, / make up my sum. Hamlet cries that he would do things for Ophelia that Laertes could not dream of. Laertes curses Hamlet by saying Oh, treble woe fall ten times treble on the cursed head, whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense deprived the of! begging that a curse falls ten times on the man whose cruel deed caused her to lose her mind.