Interpreatations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_be,_or_not_to_be






The phrase "To be ..." is elliptical, opening up an opportunity for the audience to exercise its imagination.

1. "To be dead". Hamlet is contemplating suicide, according to German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:

The essential purport of the world-famous monologue in "Hamlet" is, in condensed form, that our state is so wretched that complete non-existence would be decidedly preferable to it. Now if suicide actually offered us this, so that the alternative "TO BE OR NOT TO BE" lay before us in the full sense of the words, it could be chosen unconditionally as a highly desirable termination ("a consummation devoutly to be wish'd" [Act III, Sc. I]). There is something in us, however, which tells us that this is not so, that this is not the end of things, that death is not an absolute annihilation.[2].

Thus, the lines "whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer/the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" represent the to be option, and "to take arms against a sea of troubles/and by opposing end them" the not to be option. The possibly paradoxical concept of equating taking arms with not being is usually explained by that taking arms against an irresistible sea of troubles is suicidal—our troubles, resisted rather than borne, will destroy us.[3] Another interpretation on these lines is that the only way to take arms against an ungovernable tide is by the "constructive act of suicide".[4] But both of these contemporary views of that passage recognize that one's own death is the result of taking arms.

Although the "conscience" that "does make cowards of us all" is often linked to the excerpt that follows and interpreted as an odd use of the word to mean "consciousness of the possibly bad unknown that awaits",[citation needed] it can be also understood as the sense of right and wrong. According to E. Prosser, "This soliloquy is a meditation on the central theme of the duties and temptations of a noble mind in an evil world".[citation needed] By that interpretation, it is the moral injunction against suicide that would be ultimately decisive, rather than the "dread of something after death", which only symbolizes the usual fires of Hell.[4] Lewis, on the other hand, concludes that here it means "nothing more or less than 'fear of death'".[5]

However, the next five lines (starting with "and thus the native hue of resolution ...") no longer refer to moral judgements, but rather in a similar way anything (not just suicide) can become problematical if dwelt upon.

This, along with Hamlet's indecisiveness and uncertainty of knowledge being major themes throughout the play, inspired many commentators to read the choice between the life of action ("to be") and life of silent acceptance ("not to be") as a primary focus of Hamlet's dilemma. According to that interpretation, "whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer/the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" would be associated with the "not to be" alternative, while "to take arms against a sea of troubles/and by opposing end them" with "to be".[who?]

In this take, the Prince's further pondering the nature of death can be seen in yet a different light, the inevitable failure to win the fight against the "sea of troubles" or the only way to actually defeat it. Namely, death could be considered as a third option—the one that avoids having to choose between "to be, or not to be" altogether.[citation needed]

Regardless of whether the focus is placed on life versus death or on action versus inaction, the soliloquy and the play led to the character Hamlet being compared to existentialists after the term was introduced in the twentieth century.[citation needed]