“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; / aye, there’s the rub […] The pangs of despis’d love, the law’s delay / The insolence of office, and the spurns / That patient merit of the unworthy takes, / When he himself might his quietus make / With a bare bodkin? (3.1.63-72, 79-83) *Bodkin=knife; quietus=release/death

This is one of the many soliloquies we find in Hamlet. Using this quote, analyze the difference between performing/acting (not to be) and actually behaving (to be) in regard to Hamlet’s behavior. Why is Hamlet so upset? Does it have to do with his inheritance and the legal issues, his love life, his father’s death, or is it something psychologically deeper? How does Hamlet describe the notion of suicide in this passage, i.e. does he feel that it is a noble undertaking regarding the situation in which he finds himself?

Part II – Hamlet, Cont.

“And so I am revenged. That would be scanned. / A villain kills my father; and for that / I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven […] Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hint. / When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, / Or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed, / At gaming swearing, or about some act / That has no relish of salvation in’t – / Then trip him that his heels may kick at heaven, / And that his soul may be as damned and black / As hell, whereto it goes” (3.3.75-8, 88-95)

We discussed Religion as a major context in reading Hamlet; we understand that the Ghost has been “doomed” to walk the earth because he was not allowed his funeral rites/absolution. With that in mind, why does Hamlet, in this scene with Claudius praying in the chapel, refuse to avenge his father? Is he scared? Does he just hesitate because he thinks too much? Is Claudius’ confession of his deeds sufficient for Hamlet to forgive him? Or, does Hamlet have something more sinister planned for his uncle?