“To Be or Not to Be”from

Hamlet (1600- 1601)

GUIDED ANALYSIS

1. Read lines 1 -5 • What is the idea that Hamlet expresses in these lines?

2. Read up to line 27a. Death is mentioned several times in the monologue: point out the

metaphors through which this is done.

• He wonders which is the right attitude towards life: whether it is better to live and suffer the blows of adverse fortune stoically or have an active opposition to it

• "To die, to sleep" (l. 5);• "Tis a consummation" (l. 8);• "To die .... to dream" (ll. 9-10);• "For in that sleep of death" (l.11); • "this mortal coil" (l.12);• "his quietus" (l. 20);• "death" (l. 23);• "undiscovered country" (l. 24);

GUIDED ANALYSIS

b. Now explain them in your own words.

c. Is there an example of someone who actually returns from the dead in the tragedy?

Hamlet refers to the world of the dead from where no one has ever returned.

Such an example can be found in the ghost of Hamlet's father, the dead king of Denmark.

3. Read lines 28-33

The main point of Hamlet's monologue is indecision between action and inaction.a. Which words refer to each?

• " the native hue of resolution / is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought" (ll. 29-30); • "enterprises of great pitch and moment / With this regard their currents turn awry" (ll31-32);

GUIDED ANALYSIS

b. Which of the two is predominant in Hamlet: action or inaction?

c. Read line 28: to what does Hamlet attribute responsibility for man's incapacity for action?

Inaction. Hamlet seems to resent his own incapacity to act.

Conscience is mainly responsible for man’s incapacity for action (line 28).

4. Read the last two lines.

One of the characteristics of Shakespeare's plays is the ease with which he moves from abstract meaning to everyday practical statements or from soliloquies to dialogues.

a. What interrupts Hamlet's soliloquy?

Ophelia's arrival.

b. Do you think Hamlet's tone changes when he discovers he is not alone on the stage?

Yes, in fact he says speaking to himself, "Soft you know" (l. 33), so we can understand that he is going to lower his voice and begin another speech, as he is no longer alone on the stage.

GUIDED SUMMARY

Fill in the blanks with the words given below in scrambled order.

will surrender life abstain beyond thought better cowards

Hamlet is debating whether it is better to act or to ___________ from action. He wonders whether it is ___________ to fight against fate or to _____________ to it. Death would be preferable to ___________'s suffering if man was no scared by the _____________ of what there may be ____________ it. It is this that makes ______________ of men and takes away the ___________ to act.

Hamlet is debating whether it is better to act or to abstain from action. He wonders whether it is better to fight against fate or to surrender to it. Death would be preferable to life's suffering if man was no scared by the thought of what there may be beyond it. It is this that makes cowards of men and takes away the will to act.