To Be or Not to Be

Hamlet’s 4^th soliloquy

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 heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished! 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,

Th' 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   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 undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveler 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 remembered.

These are perhaps the most celebrated and quoted lines of Shakespeare in English literature. The very opening line of this soliloquy is the very essence of the play i.e. ‘conflict’. Hamlet remains a victim of conflict throughout the play. Here, he is in a state of dilemma and contemplating suicide. He is confused whether he should live and take the bull by its horns and face everything fate throws his way or he should end the story by taking his life. He says that dying is like sleeping, an everlasting sleep. A sleep that ends all the heartache, troubles of mind and every shock that life gives us. Therefore, it is worth wishing. But there is a problem that in sleep we have dreams and who knows what type of dreams may come in the sleep of death. This is certainly something to take into consideration. This consideration makes us stretch our sufferings in this world. Otherwise, there is no need to suffer the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’, the wrongs inflicted by the despots, the abuse of the arrogant, the twinges of deserted love, the delays of justice by legal system, the inadequate behavior and the ill treatment that good people have to take from the outlaws. You can take your dagger out and end this whole mess with a single swing. No one would choose to suffer the unbearable pangs of life unless he is afraid of what lies ahead in a country from where no one has ever returned. This shatters our resolutions and we gladly embrace all these evils rather than choosing to face the ones we don’t know of. Our conscience makes us cowards and too much thought over the consequences weakens our firm resolutions. It diverts our attention and we shun away from taking actions where it is most necessary. Hush now, Ophelia is coming. O lovely lady, please pray for me.