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Context: Act 3, Scene 1: Hamlet is distraught over his father’s death at the hand of his uncle, and his mother’s “hasty” marriage to that uncle.
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To be, or not to be, that is the question:
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. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of dispriz’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, 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,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action
The first line is so famous and oft-quoted that its power may be overlooked: Hamlet, in his desperation, is contemplating suicide, whether to be or not to be. That he forms such an extreme emotion in the format of rhetoric (that is the question) and then goes on to expand on the question for the rest of the soliloquy1 is an indication of Hamlet’s character: he is a man of thought more than a man of action. A great deal of his consternation is the result of his trying to steel himself to avenge his father by killing his uncle, a prolonged attempt that resulted in an earlier soliloquy, O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!, Act 2, Scene 2 . His intellectual bent manifests itself in his constant ruminations, including seven soliloquies, and his creation of a “mad” persona to disguise his intentions.
He begins the elaboration of his question, asking whether it is nobler to endure (suffer) the pains (slings and arrows)of outrageous fortune (life’s sea of troubles), or to confront (take arms against) and oppose them in the hope of ending them. However, he does not provide active answer, but rather questions if it isn’t better to submit, not to be, to die. Death is just another form of sleep (No more), which would put an end to the slings and arrows, heart-ache, and the thousand inevitable shocks that come with (heir to) being alive, a very seductive alternative (’tis a consummation/ Devoutly to be wish’d).
However, there’s a catch: To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub. The sleep of death, after we have shaken (shuffled off) our bodies (mortal coil) may have dreams which would cause us to hesitate (give us pause) not to be and instead to endure the calamities of a long life : the vicissitudes (whips and scorns) of time, the wrongs done by our oppressors, the proud man’s insults (contumely), the pangs of scorned (dispriz’d) love, the labored machinations (delay) of the law, the insolence of enfranchised people in power, the insults (spurns) that people of merit undergo (takes) from the unworthy . It is worth examining this list for what it tells us about Hamlet and about Shakespeare. Note that elements that can make life difficult are no different in Elizabethan England than they are now. Note also that most of them have to do with the hurtful actions of others, as Hamlet views the actions of his uncle and his mother. The incisive relevance of all of these “calamities” exemplifies Shakespeare’s timeless genius.
Why do we endure these calamities?, Hamlet asks, when we might chose not to be by committing suicide (quietus) with a knife (bodkin). Why do we endure (bear) life’s heavy burdens (fardels), To grunt and sweat under a weary life? Because, Hamlet reasons–in lines so famous because of their universal relevance– we fear what we do not know, the dread of something after death, completely unknown, the afterlife, the undiscovere’d country if there is one, that no one has ever come back from to describe (from whose bourn/No traveller returns); that gives us pause from action (puzzles the will) and makes us bear what we do know (those ills we have) rather than fly to others, unknown. Thus Hamlet has answered his original question: to be. But to him it is one more example of his inaction, his cowardice of conscience, that eats at him throughout the play. So our inborn (native) inclination (hue) to action (resolution) is weakened or paralyzed by the shadow (pale cast) of thought–Hamlet’s “curse.” And plans (enterprises) of great substance (pith) and consequence (moment) in this way are subverted (turn awry) into inaction (lose the name of action). Whether Hamlet’s plans are actually of great pith and moment is irrelevant since to Hamlet they are, and his inertia certainly has a profound effect on his self-worth, as a son and prince. Brilliant lines, brilliant insight.
And all of it in iambic pentameter.2
- an act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers hearers, especially by a character in a play.
↩︎ - lines with five iambic feet—each containing one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (ta-DUM ta-DUM ta-DUM ta-DUM ta-DUM). This 10-syllable pattern is often likened to a heartbeat ↩︎
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(Note: You can view most poems on the website, Poetry Foundation.)
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