Hamlet Analysis

My section of Hamlet comes from Act 3, scene 1. The King and Polonius are spying on Hamlet, and Hamlet delivers a soliloquy when he thinks that nobody is listening. The monologues and soliloquies that Shakespeare uses in his plays, like Hamlet, are used to show the innermost thoughts of characters, and show the audience their motives, wants, and fears. At this point in the play, Hamlet is distraught because his Mother married his Uncle in less than a month after his Father’s death; the ghost of his Father told Hamlet that he was murdered by his Uncle, and his relationship with Ophelia has fallen apart. The section of lines I have chosen are among some of the most famous written by Shakespeare, including his famous “To be, or not to be” line.

“To be, or not to be: that is the question:” By “be”, he means to be alive, so when he says “To be, or not to be” he is wondering whether it would be better for him to be alive or dead. “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?” In these lines he asks whether it would be better to deal with life for the occasional good things in it, or end his life and no longer have to deal with his “sea of troubles.” “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” are the occasional good things in his life, but on the other hand he has a “sea of troubles,” meaning he has many frequent problems in his life, such as the ghost telling him his Uncle murdered his Father, and his Mother’s marriage to his uncle. “To die: to sleep;” Hamlet frequently refers to death as “sleep”, as if dying would be a rest from his life. “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.” He says that “sleep”, or death, would be an end to his heart-ache (with Ophelia), and “the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to”, which is the many bad things that go along with Hamlet’s life that he has become accustomed to. When he says “‘tis a consummation devoutly to be wish’d” he is saying that death would be an end to things that he strongly desires. “To die, to sleep; / To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;” He is wondering what it would be like to die, and thinks that it would be like a long “dream”, which goes along with him frequently calling death “sleep.” “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;” He is wondering what dreams he would have in death, which is him wondering if he would go to Heaven or Hell. “Mortal coil” refers to his life, and the way he calls it a coil suggests that life is restricting or constricting him, and causing him to suffer. He says that the dreams that may come give him pause, which is the reason that he and other people choose to stay in life, despite all the suffering they may be experiencing.