To Be or Not To Be

Hamlet: Act III Scene I

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 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 odd 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 the orisons
Be all my sins remember'd

What the soliloquy means from class discussion bit by bit:

• To live to die
• -Integrate soliloquy into our lives
• to act or not to act
• refrain old ways of thinking
• "whether tis noble..." suggests bad things happen to good people
• -external conflicts affecting Hamlet
• -war over opulence/wealth/luxury
• Death can be:
• metaphorical/literal
• to leave life from the productive way
• lack of enlightenment
• -"consummation":ending
• "there's the rub"-dilemma
• Something not known isn't good compared to know
• "curiosity killed the cat" - take the risk to know
• -become relieved or not but better to know them not to know
• "oppressor's wrong" - more power of us
• -more authority
• -"contumely"-rude speech
• -"insolence"-arrogance
• -"spurns"-scorn, to reject
• tragic - living a long life not doing anything that reveals who you are
• literal to metaphorical concerns of "bare bodkin:
• Murder = guilt
• Guilt = great way to treat one's behavior
• Hamlet is personally human by himself, with a company; he speaks different;y to other people
• -He tells more of his truth and hides his true character
• Struggle within himself to express himself
• "orisons" -prayers
• "mortal coil" - lost our mortal body
• "sins remembered" - being a man or not a man
• confidence in decisions