In the text I will analyse the famous soliloquy “To Be or Not To Be” from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

The analysis will deal with the soliloquy’s structure and the function of the sections I will consider.

The first section is the first line, “To be or not to be: that is the question”. The simple line conveys all Hamlet's trouble about life. Indeed, “to be” means “to exist, to live”, even if the meaning is deeper than it; “to be” also underlines an awareness of oneself and of taking control of its own life. Hamlet is the nephew of the King of Denmark and has to follow the “etiquette”, so he can not live and love like he would: this is the reason why Hamlet is doubting “to be”.

The second section runs from line 2 to line 5. In the section Hamlet compares life to battle: indeed, he suffers because of “slings and arrows” and troubles are like a “sea”.

The section explains Hamlet’s point of view about his life, which is a life of suffering.

The epanalepsis of “To die; to sleep” is the key point of the third section, from line 5 to line 14.

While in the second section life you notice that life is a battle, in the third one Hamlet compares death to a sleep. At first, Hamlet seems to like the comparison he thought, but then he realises that in death there is not any dream: for the protagonist dreaming is the only action he likes to do, dreaming is the action of his existence.

Finally, while the fourth section (lines 15 to 28) gives some real examples of suffering and highlights Hamlet’s anger at life, the fifth one represents the conclusion of Hamlet’s soliloquy with a thought about human fear of dying.