Hamlet Act III

1
HamletAct III

• To be, or not to be

2

• To be, or not to be that is the
  questionWhether 'tis nobler in the mind to
  sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous
  fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of
  troubles,And by opposing end them?
• Is it nobler to suffer the horrible fate one may
  face, or to declare war on the troubles that face
  one?

3

• 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, 'tis a
  consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. 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
• To die as to sleep- simple
• By sleeping, we end the miseries we face,
  something we wish to happen
• To sleep then to dream, theres the problem
• B/c in the sleep of death dreams that come make
  us pause
• Thats the hesitation that makes the calamity of
  life so long

4

• 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 suffer whips and scorns of time, the
  tyrants offences against us the contempt of
  proud men the hurt of unrecognized love the
  insolence of rude authority the advantage the
  best people take over the worst,
• When one could end it quick with a naked dagger?

5

• who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat
  under a weary life, 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?
• Who would bear these burdens?
• To be miserable and live in a weary life
• But there is a dread of what lies after death
• The undiscovered country from where no one has
  returned
• That is what confuses/amazes us and makes us deal
  with the problems in life rather than go
  somewhere we know nothing about?

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Thus conscience does make cowards of us all And
thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied
o'er with the pale cast of thought, And
enterprises of great pith and moment With this
regard their currents turn awry, And lose the
name of action.--Soft you now! The fair Ophelia!
Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember'd.

• Our thinking makes us cowards
• The first impulse to end our lives is stopped
  by
• our thinking.
• Our great important plans are reduced to no
• action
• Sees Ophelia- true feelings

7
Analysis

• Hamlet now accepts his fate
• Tone is more contemplative than angry as in
  previous soliloquies
• He addresses everyone not just himself
• He considers the choice men must make between
  suffering problems in life or taking actions
  against them

8
Analysis

• Is personal revenge justified?
• Searches for dignity in life meaning in death
• The after-world may be worse than the sufferings
  in life
• Is it better to endure evil passively or is it
  our moral duty to right wrongs, even if that
  requires violence
• To kill is to condemn oneself to hell Thus
  conscience does make cowards of us all (83).