[Nagare]

For homework today, I need to ask some people what they think the famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet means to them. That is, people might have differing views on what Hamlet is trying to say. For those of you who have read Hamlet, it'd be much appreciated for some insights. No sparknotes rip offs please. Enjoy

This is the passage:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

EDIT: It doesn't have to be anything elaborate. Just throw something out.

[CLOUD:7]

Isn't it about him contemplating suicide?

[yujo]

This famous passage is about Hamlet considering suicide. He considers it because of all the strife and turmoil in his life and thinks that he would rather die than go through with it.

However at the line, "Ay that's the rub," he realizes what he is scared of, what he is going to face after he dies. Since nobody has ever come back from it to tell him about it, he starts to chicken out. Eventually he curses his thoughts for convincing him out of it.

[THiS ONE LOSER]

I looked it up on Spark Notes. Anything by Shakespeare, I turn to sparknotes. I know it's cheating, but it saves lives.

[aval-zo]

Oo.. Hamlet.. did many commentaries on Hamlet not so long ago for IB class.

this soliloquy took place in ACT 3, Scene 1...right before he comes across Ophelia. Ophelia speak to him while K. Claudius and Polonius are spying and listening in on him.

Hamlet is debating over if he should suicide or not. If he die, he's afraid of what's going to happen after death. He's afraid of what's going to happen after death, because once dead, you cannot get back up and tell those alive what's happening. Is it just sleeping?

line:
"whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" he should suicide

"to take arms against a sea of troubles
and by opposing end them" he should not suicide

“end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks
that flesh is heir to,”hamlet saying that once dead, you cannot feel any pain, so death end your pain, thoughts, memories, etc.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; "to die, to sleep"...say something about this.. i forgot what.. but it's repeated twice.. there's something behind this...since he said it twice


But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?another of him saying how we don't know what happened after death

ermm.. that's all i can remember

[Nagare]

Thanks for the replies. I printed the homework out now lol.

[prismatic_star]

lol, what a coincidence! My class had a discussion on that soliquoy last week in english class