hamlet's soliloquy

Paradigm source: Stratford Festival

Hamlet's soliloquy contains what is probably the virtually-quoted line in all of Shakespeare:  'to be or not to be.' TIME's compilation of the summit 15 Shakespeare quotes put it at the top of their list. It's likely that you take heard, read, or said the famous opening words of the spoken language: 'to be or not to exist.'

There's more to information technology, of course, than "to exist or non to be." Here are some features the speech that you may not take been aware of.

Start, here is Hamlet's soliloquy in its entirety.

To be, or not to be? That is the question—

Whether 'tis nobler in the listen to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And, by opposing, terminate them? To die, to sleep—

No more than—and by a sleep to say we terminate

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to—'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished! To dice, to sleep.

To sleep, mayhap to dream—ay, there's the rub,

For in that slumber of death what dreams may come up

When we accept shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There'due south the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor's incorrect, the proud homo'southward brass,

The pangs of despised love, the law'due south delay,

The insolence of function, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' 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,

Merely 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 nosotros have

Than fly to others that we know non of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale bandage of idea,

And enterprises of peachy pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn amiss,

And lose the name of action. —Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia! —Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

A mod English translation of Hamlet'southward soliloquy

The oral communication is a stunning work of art and the most-studied of all of Shakespeare'southward plays. It is best untampered. However, a mod English rendering tin can untangle some of the puzzling lines and Elizabethan turns of phrase.

Ben Florman, LitCharts's co-founder, wrote the following mod English translation of Hamlet's soliloquy:

To alive, or to die? That is the question.

Is it nobler to suffer through all the terrible things

fate throws at y'all, or to fight off your troubles,

and, in doing so, cease them completely?

To die, to slumber—because that'southward all dying is—

and by a sleep I mean an end to all the heartache

and the thousand injuries that we are vulnerable to—

that'due south an end to be wished for!

To dice, to sleep. To sleep, perhaps to dream—yes,

simply there's in that location's the catch. Because the kinds of

dreams that might come in that slumber of expiry—

after you have left behind your mortal trunk—

are something to make you anxious.

That's the consideration that makes us suffer

the calamities of life for so long.

Because who would conduct all the trials and tribulations of fourth dimension—

the oppression of the powerful, the insults from arrogant men,

the pangs of unrequited honey, the slowness of justice,

the disrespect of people in role,

and the general abuse of good people by bad—

when you could just settle all your debts

using null more than an unsheathed dagger?

Who would deport his burdens, and grunt

and sweat through a tiring life, if they weren't frightened

of what might happen after death—

that undiscovered land from which no visitor returns,

which nosotros wonder most and which makes us

prefer the troubles we know rather than fly off

to face the ones we don't? Thus, the fear of

death makes us all cowards, and our natural

willingness to act is made weak by too much thinking.

Deportment of swell urgency and importance

get thrown off course because of this sort of thinking,

and they stop to be deportment at all.

Merely wait, here is the beautiful Ophelia!

[To OPHELIA] Beauty, may you lot forgive all my sins in your prayers.

Hamlet's soliloquy contains other famous Shakespeare quotes.

In the soliloquy in that location is more than simply the famous line "to be or not to be."  You may have heard these Shakespearean quotes equally well.

  • Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to have artillery against a sea of troubles.
  • To die, to sleep. / To sleep, perchance to dream
  • Ay, there'due south the rub,
  • Shuffled off this mortal coil
  • The pangs of despised love
  • To grunt and sweat under a weary life
  • Thus censor does make cowards of united states of america all
  • All my sins remembered.

Understanding Hamlet'southward Soliloquy, and the pregnant of 'To exist or not to be'

What is the meaning of Hamlet's soliloquy? Hither'due south a brief explanation of the meaning and themes, drawn from LitCharts's comprehensive literary guide to Hamlet.

While Polonius and Claudius hide and overhear, Hamlet breaks into this most famous soliloquy, perhaps the all-time-known speech in the English linguistic communication. Hamlet returns to the question of suicide, wondering if it would be preferable to end his life or not.

Though Hamlet'southward language has grown more than direct from its earlier references to "dew," information technology still speaks to his passivity in the face up of desperation. He phrases the question of death in the abstract with the infinitive verb forms "to be, or not to be"—and makes it "the question" of humanity, every bit opposed to a personal matter. These choices imply that the decision whether or not to exist is a constant struggle for each person, a struggle that Hamlet tries to mediate through the metric of what is "nobler in the mind." This phrase implies that expiry is evaluated based on the perceived definiteness or social value, as opposed to, say, a universal ethical system.

For the two options themselves, Hamlet chooses evocative images: "To be" is put in relatively more passive terms every bit a continuous procedure of "suffering" an onslaught of external attacks from "outrageous fortune"—that is to say, the abiding influx of events that cannot be shifted in ane'southward destiny. Suicide, on the other hand, is presented every bit an active fight that wages war on "a sea of troubles" and, indeed, is successful in the endeavour. The phrase "past opposing end them" seems noble or glorious, but what it literally means is to vanquish one'due south "outrageous fortune" by ending one's life. Thus Hamlet presents his lack of suicide not as the event of insufficient desperation, simply rather his aloofness from wishing to accept on such a fight. Life becomes, for him, a abiding decision of whether he volition finally arrive at sufficient motivation to shift course and stop his and/or Claudius's life.

12 Facts most Hamlet'southward Famous 'To exist or not to be' Soliloquy

  • Hamlet wasn't alone while he uttered his soliloquy. According to the definition of soliloquy, "normally, no other characters are present." In Hamlet'southward example, Ophelia is positioned nearby, while Claudius and Polonius are hiding.
  • The scene, Human activity Iii, Scene I, in which Village delivers his soliloquy is often called the "nunnery scene." Village vituperates against Ophelia past telling her to "get thee to a nunnery."
  • Co-ordinate to fable, Village is being performed somewhere in the world every minute of every day. (I'm unaware of where this bit of trivia originated, merely its veracity is dubious.)
  • The play, gear up in Denmark, is set, more specifically, in the Kronborg Castle of Helsingør. And, aye, y'all can rent the castle.
  • The 'to be or not to be' soliloquy is 33 lines long and consists of 262 words.
  • The Panthera leo Male monarch is the closest a popular Disney flick has come to adapting a Shakespeare play, in this case, Hamlet. Other literary works that borrow Hamlet themes are Great Expectations (Charles Dickens), Ulysses (James Joyce) and Tom Jones (Henry Fielding).
  • Want to read Hamlet in Klingon? You can. Village is one of two Shakespearean plays that have been translated into the linguistic communication of Star Trek'south Klingons. How do you say "To be or not to exist" in Klingon? "taH pagh taHbe'!
  • Hamlet'due south soliloquy takes up to four minutes to perform.
  • As far as historians can ascertain, the start Village performance was in 1600 or 1601. The acting troupe was the Rex's Men, and the venue was, of form, the Globe.
  • Village, at 4,042 lines, is the longest Shakespearean play. Performances normally last iv-v hours.
  • The spoken language is written in iambic pentameter, and many of the lines accept a feminine ending (11 syllables with the ultimate syllable unstressed). Students of Village conjecture that the irregularity of the feminine ending lines represents stress or turbulence, which Hamlet is manifestly experiencing equally he soliloquizes.
  • The first person to perform Hamlet's soliloquy was the role player Richard Burbage. Burbage was one of the almost sensational actors ever to grace the World. He and Shakespeare were shut friends.
  • Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet who died at historic period 11. It is possible that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet as a response to this personal tragedy.

Watch these famous recitations of the soliloquy.

Mel Gibson as Hamlet performs the soliloquy.

Here is David Tennant, former Doctor Who, and accolade-winning Shakespearean thespian in his critically acclaimed performance.

This is Kenneth Branagh in his performance of the soliloquy.

And, true to form, Bridegroom Cumberbatch, seizes the audience with his interpretation.