To Be Or Not To Be: Explained

[@browhatsup2561]

Boooring

[@The16419]

Well done! I enjoyed that.

[@binghamguevara6814]

What does Shakespeare mean by "outrageous fortune"? "Fortune" means money. The phrase "slings and arrows" doesn't juxtapose meaningfully with a phrase about money. Thank you to anyone who answers.

[@JoelRogness]

Hi Bingham. I understand the phrase outrageous fortune to mean unfortunate circumstance. Slings and arrows mean the difficulties that derive from unfortunate circumstance. so he's saying on the one hand is it better to suffer the consequences of unlucky birth, or to take your own life and end those same circumstances. but that's just my interpretation, and others might disagree.

[@binghamguevara6814]

@@JoelRogness I guess it should have been written as "outrageous misfortune" then. Thanks for your comment.

[@JohnBender1313]

Heard this probably 100 times in my life. Never meant anything to me. Heard it again tonight and it all seemed clear now. Wondered if it was all just me making it up in my mind and looked up videos. Your the first i found explaining it. And its exactly what i thought was apparently. What a deep fxcking to ponder and try to grasp how to understand. Took me 30+ years.

[@aelinashgala8602]

Thank you so much for this, you really explained it wonderfully!

[@kevinmatthews7047]

This is not about suicide. The play is about a son called to avenge his father’s murder. This soliloquy is about whether to act or not. Thinking vs action. Hamlet rules out suicide. The almighty has turned his cannon against self slaughter. At no point in the whole entire play does he attempt suicide. He stops himself from killing the king when he has chances by overthinking it. The king stops himself from killing hamlet also. Instead of doing it he sends him off to England. He comes up with a wager and tries to poison hamlet. In other words, if you remove this soliloquy from the play completely perhaps it could be taken the way you say. All I’m saying is to relate it to the story being told. Action vs inaction. Both ways lead to death. But there is no suicide here.

[@JoelRogness]

Hey Kevin. Thoughtful. I disagree of course, but I see what you're saying. Next time I read the play I'll keep this in mind - thanks!

[@momentswithnahcassie8275]

this play has much interpretations and this one he just gave us is very correct if u define those words he is mostly talking of death cos he is depressed (melancholy)

[@SparkleP8nter]

That and not wanting to be part of the sick elite, knowing too much and wanting to “wake up” rather than joining. Neos matrix bluepill/redpill Who wants to be a part of ones who would murder their family & take what’s theirs. Etc Imagine being inside that and have no way out, knowing what’s going on, does he take part, or does he cast a sea of troubles and Out them for their actions, knowing they will try to silence him Ophelia was already abused and couldn’t handle it, and he doesn’t know how to continue being a part of them and the abuse It’s like the elite in Hollywood, the leaders... think of #theynevercomeback Then remember they made hamlet a Disney Movie...

[@elliotwood2924]

It is the contemplation of suicide, he even says “to die”, and “to sleep,” and “shuffled off this mortal coil”, so it is clearly related to suicide as although he ultimately doesn’t, the whole speech is balancing death and as he says an almost merciful “sleep”, almost as if suicide would relieve him from the awful life he leads, among other things in the soliloquy. I could go on but it is only his belief in life after death and religious links that stop him from doing so if you read the second half.

[@Xekoroth1988]

I think it is actually about both. I think Shakespeare intended this to be a metaphor for what motivates us to act or not act in general, using the most extreme action possible "ending one's ability to act or not through suicide" as a careful exploration of both motivation and consequence. I think the line, "what dreams may come" is not an allusion to an afterlife, but rather a rhetorical statement (the answer being no dreams will come) and consequently as a metaphor to do or not do, that inaction will never allow for the fruition of our dreams in life.

[@vanessabayardo9788]

It is about suicide. Of course it is. I'm studying for the English CSET for the teaching credential and after giving me the chance to write my own essay, it shows me the essay someone wrote on this, explaining how it is about Hamlet contemplating suicide. The person got 4 points out of 4 points available.

[@kevinmatthews7047]

That settles it then. Let us away, for By my fay I cannot reason.

[@Xekoroth1988]

Wait so because someone wrote an essay saying it's about suicide in the last decade, you think absolutely that is the correct and only interpretation of something written centuries ago? Surely you are not actually going to be educating children if you think this...

[@waterglas21]

Harold Bloom one of the best literary critics of the last century thought suicide was not the main theme in this speech.

[@jrpipik]

"To die, to sleep. No more." This doesn't mean that if one dies, one "will never go back to bed." It means that dying is no more than going to sleep. A good modern approximation might be, "Dying is sleeping, that's all."

[@JoelRogness]

Yeah that's for sure right. I got it wrong in the video. I've always thought of going back and changing that. Thanks!