Analyzing Hamlet's Soliloquy 'To Be Or Not To Be'
Throughout the course of the play, Hamlet is preoccupied with the idea of death and the oblivion. From the beginning of his father’s death to his own death in the end, Hamlet experiences different feelings about dying and expresses his many ideas on the afterlife. By studying his soliloquies we can observe Hamlet’s character as well as find the climax in his urgent desire to die and his final resolve into complacency.
Even before the first soliloquy, we know through the first scene that it is Hamlet 's father’s death that triggers Hamlet’s interest in the afterlife. Having someone so important leave his life brings out Hamlet’s inner curious and depressed nature. In Act I, scene 2, he expresses his troubled state of mind: …show more content…
In Act III, sc i, Hamlet’s feelings about death grow and leaving life becomes an increasing possibility. His famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be”, is interpreted into so many different ways that Hamlet’s true meaning is unclear. For example, Samuel Johnson in his Note to “To Be or Not to Be”, he writes that the real question is whether, after our present state, we are to be or not to be. In the article Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” Soliloquy: Once Unto the Breach, Petronella lists more interpretations by other writers: to Davis McElroy, “to be” is to take arms against Claudius, and “not to be” is to suffer due to inaction. And to Richards Iving, the conflict is between enduring and suffering through one’s troubles in life and ending one’s life to escape his toils. But it can be better agreed that there is more than one question: Harry Levin sees that Hamlet’s enigmatic situation has no simple choices between two alternatives, but of many choices --To live and suffer, or to take arms and commit suicide, or choose death which is oblivious. But when looking upon the whole of Hamlet’s soliloquy, more is noticed than the struggle between living and dying. His fear of death and wish to conquer his curiosity of the unknown prevents him from killing himself. At this point of the play, Hamlet is considering death seriously and the only thing stopping him is his
Even before the first soliloquy, we know through the first scene that it is Hamlet 's father’s death that triggers Hamlet’s interest in the afterlife. Having someone so important leave his life brings out Hamlet’s inner curious and depressed nature. In Act I, scene 2, he expresses his troubled state of mind: …show more content…
In Act III, sc i, Hamlet’s feelings about death grow and leaving life becomes an increasing possibility. His famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be”, is interpreted into so many different ways that Hamlet’s true meaning is unclear. For example, Samuel Johnson in his Note to “To Be or Not to Be”, he writes that the real question is whether, after our present state, we are to be or not to be. In the article Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” Soliloquy: Once Unto the Breach, Petronella lists more interpretations by other writers: to Davis McElroy, “to be” is to take arms against Claudius, and “not to be” is to suffer due to inaction. And to Richards Iving, the conflict is between enduring and suffering through one’s troubles in life and ending one’s life to escape his toils. But it can be better agreed that there is more than one question: Harry Levin sees that Hamlet’s enigmatic situation has no simple choices between two alternatives, but of many choices --To live and suffer, or to take arms and commit suicide, or choose death which is oblivious. But when looking upon the whole of Hamlet’s soliloquy, more is noticed than the struggle between living and dying. His fear of death and wish to conquer his curiosity of the unknown prevents him from killing himself. At this point of the play, Hamlet is considering death seriously and the only thing stopping him is his