(Three Messages) Has something in life ever been so hard that giving up felt like the only option? There are endless hard situations people have to go through everyday. For example, death of a loved one, divorce, addiction and many more. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is going through a very hard time dealing with his fathers death. He is also dealing with the fact that his mother re-married very quickly to his father’s brother; meaning incest during that period of history. During the play Hamlet is extraordinarily depressed and comes off as delusional at times. In Hamlet’s “To Be or Not To Be” soliloquy, he talks about various points that sum up the whole meaning behind the play.” This is perhaps the most famous soliloquy in Hamlet, and indeed in all of Shakespeare's plays.” (Newell) This soliloquy really …show more content…
This message is not only in this soliloquy, but is found in several other places in the play. After Hamlet’s father died, he became very depressed and even cursed God for making suicide a sin. “O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His cannon ‘gainst self-slaughter.” (Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 131-134) Clearly, Hamlet mourning for his father has forced unhealthy thoughts to come to mind. In the “To Be or Not To Be” soliloquy he also speaks of his own suicide, but in a less forceful manor. In the opening lines Hamlet poses the question: to be alive or not to be alive. “To be, in Hamlet's eyes, is a passive state, to "suffer" outrageous fortune's blows, while not being is the action of opposing those blows. Living is, in effect, a kind of slow death, a submission to fortune's power” (Patronella) Clearly, this shows that Hamlet thinks that death will be peaceful and will leave him with no more pain or sorrow, while life is a sea of troubles that he cannot