What is the name of the character who says “Alas, poor Yorick!”? The character is Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Hamlet says the line in Act 5, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, during the graveyard scene. A gravedigger uncovers the skull of Yorick, a court jester Hamlet remembers from childhood. Hamlet recalls Yorick’s humor, songs, and the fact that he once carried the prince on his back.
The speech turns a familiar childhood memory into a meditation on mortality. Hamlet realizes that even wit, beauty, rank, and affection ultimately give way to death. Yorick himself never appears alive in the play; he is an unseen character whose skull becomes the focus of Hamlet’s reflection.
A frequent mistake is to answer Yorick, because the name is strongly associated with the quotation. Yorick is the dead jester being remembered, not the speaker. Horatio is present in the scene and listens, but Hamlet delivers the speech. The image of Hamlet holding Yorick’s skull later became one of the most recognizable symbols of theatre.