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To Be Or Not To Be Soliloquy Analysis

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This essay will be about Hamlet’s famous, “To be, or not to be,” soliloquy. It starts off when Hamlet walks into a trap laid by Claudius and Polonius. Deep in thought, Hamlet goes off on a rant about Life’s troubles. Throughout the Soliloquy he contrasts action versus inaction. It delves deeply into death and why a person would or wouldn’t want to experience it. By the end he has reached the consensus that too much thinking will keep you from ever acting and thereby kill you. This passage was rendered so beautifully in its time that we still can sympathize with it today. A master of poetic phrasing, Shakespeare paints a beautiful picture of words in this soliloquy.
There is much creative phrasing in this immemoralized passage. The very first line states the entire …show more content…

The end of line eight plus line nine sum up the feeling of every sane person; that an end to suffering is, “Devoutly to be wish’d.” So far through this soliloquy, Shakespeare has made a convincing argument for death and in line ten, death and sleep are once again compared using anaphora. However at the end of the line, he adds in an interesting variable, dreams. Just as sleep contains dreams, what if death does as well? This totally changes the course of the soliloquy, showing how too much thought into something can upset a formerly neat argument. The denotation of the word rub at the end of line ten has changed since Shakespeare first wrote it. In certain situations the connotation can be similar as in, “Someone rubbed you the wrong way,” but in its most common definition very different. Back then it referenced a game similar to lawn bowling. In this game a rub was some spot that changed the course of the ball, deflecting it off target. This relates to the thought of dreams in death throwing Hamlet’s previous thoughts off course. In lines eleven through thirteen, Shakespeare restates line ten in a more comprehensive manner. He shows that we shouldn’t run off to death because no

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Hamlet asks “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. “(Shakespeare) in his soliloquy. This quote shows that he is wondering if life would be worth all the suffering or if he should just end it all and hope that the afterlife is better than his current life. Later in the soliloquy, he realizes that most people won’t know what happens in the afterlife because no one ever comes back from the dead. He realizes this when he states “...

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Questioning life through the quote “for who would bear the whips and scorns of time,” Hamlet is confused and considers death (3.1.71). This can be seen when Branagh pulls out a knife and points it at his reflection, considering death. This adds to the text’s meaning by physically showing what is going on in Hamlet’s mind. Although Branagh is older than Hamlet, his age resembles wisdom. He is aware of the unknown.

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When applied correctly, soliloquies successfully allow the reader to experience characters in their most vulnerable state: within their own minds. Hamlet is no exception to this principle, as Shakespeare’s mastery of rhetoric in establishing the main character’s inner conflict provides depth and rawness to his complex character. In this well-known soliloquy, Shakespeare employs logos to acknowledge that death can be both a relief and nightmare due to natural human emotions; accordingly, Hamlet personifies a severe case of teenage depression by simultaneously wishing for an end to suffering yet remaining hesitant to act on his own thoughts due to his fear of the unknown.         Throughout this passage, Hamlet attempts to rationalize ending his life over continuing to endure the painful reality of his existence. The parallelism in this particular soliloquy serves several rhetorical purposes, including the development of an implicit contrast between Hamlet’s mental state and the actual organization of his thoughts.

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Whereas the first half is much more relaxed, with the alliteration playing a large role in this, the second is sharply different. Instead of speaking of the stillness of the night, Shakespeare is discussing action and loud sounds. He speaks of waves and rough winds and storms, yet also of a boy sleeping. This contrasted with the calmness of the night where the King is, yet the King’s inability to sleep helps to create the powerful message about the King’s mind. Whereas the first half had soothing diction, the second uses words such as “rude”, “ruffian”, and “monstrous”.

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In the speech, Hamlet interrogates himself with questions that sane people would not be able to answer themselves. Hamlet has been overwhelmed with the conflicts that have been occurring around him. The conflicts escort him to becoming easily pressured and desperate in finding a solution about the death of his father. He is very impatient to seek vengeance for his father and wants to kill King Claudius by any means at all. "To die, to sleep" is where Hamlet is discussing about his thoughts of suicide.

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and by a sleep to say we end” ( III.i.56-61) Signet Classic Edition This is the beginning of another soliloquy said by the protagonist of the play, Hamlet, from Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. The theme of suicide is thoroughly expressed throughout the soliloquy, but it is most prevalent in the six lines above. The quote starts out with Hamlet saying “To be, or not to be”, which is him asking himself is he would rather live or die. Then, the goes on to say “Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to

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This extract is from Act 4 Scene 1 of the acclaimed play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare is one of the greatest writers of English literature in the history. He is famous for his poetries, quotes, tragic and comedy plays. We must assume that some of his writings on misery and warmth were a reflection of his own life experience. Love and marriage in his plays always ended miserably and symbolized as tragedies, or full of unnecessary disputes on trivial issues.

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are both short, quick phrases separated with commas, colons, and semicolons. The reader connects with Hamlet due to the way that Shakespeare writes. The reader gains a feeling that Hamlet’s thoughts grow burdensome here, and become so overwhelming that he only expresses himself in short, simple phrases. In this passage, Hamlet happens to relate dying to sleep, which leads the play watcher to think that Hamlet does not view death as being scary. However, as the soliloquy continues on, Hamlet begins to have his doubts as he becomes unsure of what will actually happen after death.

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In Hamlet’s second soliloquy he is contemplating existence wavering on his chance to kill the king his thoughts of whether it is worth continuing existing or to cease existing and “To die: to sleep:/ No more; and by sleep say we end/ The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks...”(III.ii 61-63). He thinks of all the possible repercussions of his actions almost all avenging heroes never stop and think about what they are doing and what reactions their actions might cause this shows a divide between Hamlet and the man of Elizabethan times. He contemplates mortality and compares it to the immortality of stories and legends and how if he continued his existence he would be remembered regardless of if he succeeded in killing the king or failed.

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In the “To be or not to be” soliloquy, Hamlet says, “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!”(3.1 61-64) Proving that he is so distraught about taking action against his uncle that he believes that death would be an easier alterative to losing his purity and innocence. He ultimately decides that suicide is not the answer, “With this regard their currents turn awry/ And lose the name of action,” (3.1 88-89) because he cannot take the uncertainty of the afterlife. This entire soliloquy also highlights Hamlets delayed action to his problems.

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