To Be Or Not To Be… Thadani Deepa Vice Principal, St. Stephen's Senior Secondary School, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India Email id: thadani.d@ststephensajmer.com Online published on 21 April, 2018. Abstract The opening lines of a soliloquy spoken by Prince Hamlet in the play Hamlet written by William Shakespeare read, ‘To be or not to be, that is the question….’Although called a soliloquy, Hamlet is not alone and Ophelia, Claudius and Polonius are all in the close vicinity. Hamlet has been asked by his father's ghost to avenge his murder but his indecisiveness has not let him take arms. He contemplates on the philosophical ideas of life, death and suicide. Bemoaning the unfairness of life, he considers suicide as an escape from the sufferings of fortune. Hamlet suggests that we endure the cares of the world because afterlife might even be worse than the present situation. All the major characters in the play are driven by this metaphysical concept and contribute to the denouement. Hamlet is a tragedy of a man's soul and provides an insight into the minds of many characters living lives according to their ideas of ‘being’ and ‘not being’. The play has many memorable monologues and phrases which enrich English literature. Top Keywords Afterlife, Conscience, Death, Fortune, Introspection, Introspection, Not to be, Procrastination, Sleep, Suffering, Suicide, To be. Top |