(4)+To+be+or+not+to+be,+that+is+the+question...


 * (4th soliloquy-- Act 3, Scene 1, lines 64-96, Folger Edition)**

//INTRODUCTION:

Before we see Hamlet's soliloquy we learn that Polonius and Claudius are looking to find out if Hamlet has actually gone crazy or is simply love crazy. They plan to send Ophelia to Hamlet and test his love for her. P & C plan to see his reaction to her. R & G are also involved in this plot, and are going to question and test Hamlet, due to orders from the king.

All of these issues are building a tremendous amount of frustration and despair inside of Hamlet. During this soliloquy, Hamlet is contemplating acting on his beliefs or wondering if death is a simpler way out.//

// ANNOTATED SOLILOQUY: //**

HAMLET: **

**To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer 65 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 70 **

//Hamlet begins to question whether it is better to be alive or dead. He wonders if it is nobler to put up with all of the bad fortune and luck that he is being faced with and suffer through without doing anything to stop it, or to fight all of his troubles and put an end to them all together. He then explains that dying is nothing but sleeping that ends all heart-ache and shocks that he would have to face on earth.//

**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, 75 **

//However, there is a catch, that in death's sleep no one knows what kind of dreams might come after us.//

**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, 80 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? **

//After all, who would put up with all life’s humiliations—the abuse from superiors, the insults of arrogant men, the pangs of unrequited love, the inefficiency of the legal system, the rudeness of people in office, and the mistreatment good people have to take from bad—when you could simply take out your knife and call it quits? //

To grunt and sweat under a weary life, 85 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? 90 ** 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, 95 And lose the name of action. **
 * who would fardels bear,
 * Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

//Hamlet asks why anyone would want to deal with life's suffering, but those who are afraid of what comes after death.// // The only thing keeping him from death is what lies beyond death. The "dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will," and keeps people from choosing death as an answer. Hamlet states that our "conscience" keeps us from acting and makes us all "cowards."//

73. **rub:** obstacle (a technical term from the game of bowls, where a “rub” is an obstruction that hinders or deflects the course of the bowl) 75. **shuffled off this mortal coil**: i.e., untangled ourselves from the flesh; also, detached ourselves from the turmoil of human affairs. 77. **makes calamity of so long life:** i.e., makes us put up with unhappiness for such a long time 80. **despised:** unrequited (accent on first syllable) 81. **office:** i.e., those in office 83. **his quietus make:** settle his own account (from //quietus est//, a legal term meaning “he is quit”) 84. **bare bodkin:** a mere dagger (or, an unsheathed dagger); **fardels:** burdens, loads 87. **undiscovered:** unexplored; **bourn:** frontier 88. **puzzles:** i.e., paralyzes 91. **conscience:** i.e., knowledge, consciousness 92. **native hue:** natural color 93. **cast:** shade 94. **pitch:** height (the pitch is the highest point in a falcon’s flight); moment: importance 95. **With this regard:** on this account; **their currents turn awry:** i.e., the great enterprises are like rivers that, turned aside from their main channels, lose momentum and become stagnant

//CONCLUSION: //

//Hamlet faces multiple conflicts. Along with man vs self, where he decides whether living is the best thing for himself, he gives other reasons why he should not live. One major conflict Hamlet faces is man vs society. As he says here, "for who would bear the whips and scorn of time, the opressors's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised, the law's delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes." Hamlet is asking why anyone would want to deal with society's issues if it wasn't necessary.//

//In this way, this speech connects many of the play’s main themes, including the idea of suicide and death, the difficulty of knowing the truth in a spiritually ambiguous universe, and the connection between thought and action. In addition to its crucial thematic content, this speech is important for what it reveals about the quality of Hamlet’s mind. His deeply passionate nature is complemented by a relentlessly logical intellect, which works furiously to find a solution to his misery. He has turned to religion and found it inadequate to help him either kill himself or resolve to kill Claudius. Here, he turns to a logical philosophical inquiry and finds it equally frustrating **(thanks Spare Notes...you really have taken the ability of our youth to think for themselves.)**//