Quote Analysis

Hamlet turns from Yorick to more abstract speculation, asking Horatio whether imagination could trace Alexander the Great's remains to some degrading final use, such as plugging a hole.

The phrase 'base uses' sets up the juxtaposition the whole sentence explores—Alexander was anything but base—and 'return' suggests a cyclical movement, as if greatness inevitably descends. The verb 'trace' makes imagination itself into detective work, following a trail of decay, while 'noble dust' is almost oxymoronic: dust is the opposite of nobility, yet Hamlet insists on keeping the adjective attached. 'Stopping a bung-hole' (plugging a barrel) is deliberately bathetic, the most mundane possible end for a world conqueror; Hamlet seems to relish the disproportion.

Use this to argue that Hamlet finds intellectual satisfaction in leveling exercises—tracing Alexander to a bung-hole lets him imagine a world where achievement and fame dissolve completely. This democratic vision of death might comfort him when his own revenge feels impossible.