ANALYSIS OF HAMLET’S SOLILOQUY: “TO BE OR NOT TO BE” (ACT III, SCENE I)

The present text will provide a personal analysis of the Hamlet’s soliloquy: “to be or not to be” by William Shakespeare. The soliloquy is part of a famous Shakespearian play called “Hamlet” and in particular belongs to the first scene of the third act of the play.

First of all, since it is a soliloquy (from the Latin solus “alone” and loqui “to speak”)it implies that Hamlet is alone on the stage and speaks to himself pretending nobody is listening to him.

Taking into consideration the title, it arouses curiosity in the reader, who is curious to find out why Shakespeare juxtaposed two opposites and what to be and not to be refer to. There are many interpretations for the title’s meaning, but once I read it, at first, I expect the soliloquy to be about life and existence issues, where “to be” refers to life and “not to be” refers to death. In addition, I think the use of infinitive form creates an abstract effect and adds an existential dimension to the speech. Now, I am going to read the text to find out if my hypothesis is correct or not.

Since the very first lines, the intelligent reader can understand Hamlet is confused and contemplating death. Indeed, he is wondering whether life or death is preferable and, since life and death are two opposites, he expresses some contrasts as you can see in the title. Going on, it seems like the soliloquy is a mental argumentation where Hamlet explains the pros and the cons about to be and not to be: he tries to make sense of what living or dying implies and consequently he develops a logical argumentation comparing the two things with their advantages and disadvantages. In particular, firstly he considers the “to be aspect”, saying that if he decides to go on living, he has to face problems and troubles and then he takes into consideration the implications of “not to be”, where Shakespeare uses a metaphor to convey the idea that dying is as a long sleep from which nobody wakes up and therefore he thinks that his troubles will end. So, at first, it seems like dying is the best solution, because it consists of a long never-ending sleep, but sleeping sometimes implies nightmares.

Taking into consideration the syntax, it is an interrogative one: indeed, Hamlet is wondering himself different questions about life and he wants to search for an answer to a question which is not sure about. In addition, the presence of numerous questions underlines his confused and contrasting feelings. 

For what concerns the semantical level, Shakespeare favours the semantic field of war. Indeed, Hamlet is wondering whether if it is the case “to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles”, where slings, arrows and arms are words of war. It follows that, life is seen as a war and therefore as a conflict, just like the feelings of the character. In addition, the expression “sea of troubles” is a metaphor to convey the meaning of Hamlet’s negative vision of life.

Hamlet puts especially the problems and sufferings of living into focus, listing many of them, such as “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” and he wonders who would bear all those when he can kill himself. It makes me think Hamlet is moving toward death yet again.

However, by the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet realized he is scared of dying because he does not know what there is after death, which is seen as an “undiscover'd country from whose bourn / No traveller returns”. It means that the dread of something after death and its unknowledge “puzzles the will”, stops the desire of dying, creates confusion and therefore forces us to bear the sufferings of life.

To conclude, the soliloquy ends with a meaningful assertion which can be considered the message of the whole soliloquy that is: “conscience does make cowards of us all”. So, men are cowards and scared about afterlife and this is the reason why many chose life over death.