TO BE OR NOT TO BE

"To be or not to be" is the beginning of the most famous Hamlet's soliloquy (act III, scene I). A soliloquy is a long speech said by a person who is alone and it has the aim to express character's inner feelings.

In particular Hamlet is thinking about the existence: he wants to understand what is better to do: to exist or to die. Already from the first line: "To be, or not to be: that is the question" it is possible to understand it. In this case "To be" suggests the idea of existing that adds something more to the meaning of living. As a matter of fact the second one merely means that somebody limited to natural aspects, such as to eat and to sleep. Whereas "to be" implies to have a consciousness of what life provides.
Not to be instead means to deny the possibility of existing, that is to cancel himself, so not to have the capacity of thinking, making choices and being free.

From the second line to the fifth ("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?") Hamlet expresses his doubts and he poses himself a question about the best to do: is it better to suffer in the mind (going through a crisis) and bear tribulations (slings and arrows) caused by negative (outrageous) fortune or to fight (take arms) against troubles and try to end them?
It is possible to point out that the protagonist does not face up to his' responsibilities; as a matter of fact he puts the blame of problems to the negative fortune and he feels as persecuted by it.
Furthermore in these lines the hardship of the decision is emphasized especially by the semantic field of "war", thus we understand there is a continued war in his mind. But also harsh sounds as "r" and "s" help to this aim. Therefore the vision of life is pessimistic: it is an enemy, a sea of troubles and an outrageous fortune.

In the end of the fifth line, an investigation of the death starts by making a critical thinking: to die and to sleep are compared because when you sleep you cannot perceive situations around you and you are disconnected to the life and so it seems as if you were dead.
In addition Hamlet explains that if you sleep you can pretend not to feel troubles of life: you have the illusion that they may finish and you can overcome them. Furthermore by dreaming you can create your own world in which all woes and passions are stopped ("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").