TO BE

"..Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,.."

These are the first words that Hamlet says in his first question. The reader can already understand what Hamlet thinks about men's life. He says that men in their life "suffer". So men's life is composed by suffering and offences.

"..Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?.."

The reader can immediately notice the presence of the semantic field of war ( "take arms", "by opposing" ). Moreover we understand that in this sentence Hamlet starts to introduce the problem of death. In fact he says that if a man decides to fight suffering he is going to die for it.

"..For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised 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? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,.."

In this part Hamlet makes a list of all the difficulties and sufferings in men's life.

NOT TO BE

"..To die: to sleep;.."

Hamlet compares death to sleeping. Death has got some affinity with the action of sleeping: it may represent a rest; it is a forgetting , or a pause. When you are sleeping, in fact, you don't suffer.

"..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..."

In this part Hamlet talks about the possible advantage of death. He says that death is the solution that could put an end to "the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to".

"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;"

Hamlet compares death to sleeping. When we sleep we dream but what do dreams hide under the sleep of death? That is the problem and the fear that people have.

"But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'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?"


In this part Hamlet defines death. He describes it as "the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveler returns". With this sentence he explains why people are afraid of death. In fact nobody knows what we could find after death. We are afraid of the unknow .