I kind of wish I’d taken that philosophy class in college. I feel like there’s a philosopher who talks about a doubling of self. Or maybe that’s a psychologist? And I did take that psychology class – but I can’t think of who that theorist might have been.
In any case – there is an interesting doubling of Yorick’s self here. The one who is dead, whose skull seems to be grinning due to the teeth and the one who would have made fun of such a morbid grin. There are two Yoricks in Hamlet’s mind.
It also occurred to me that there might be another interpretation available. It’s a stretch – so I don’t think it’s right but given that there is no fool or jester in this play, it would seem that after Yorick’s death, they didn’t replace him. So there is no official fool in the Danish Court.
The only fool left is the one Hamlet internalized.
