FREE TO BE OR NOT TO BE: AND EVERYTHING ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW FROM SHAKESPEARE PDF Liz Evers | 192 pages | 14 Oct 2010 | Michael O'Mara Books Ltd | 9781843174622 | English | London, United Kingdom To Be Or Not To Be? Which Shakespeare Quotes Represent Your ? General Education. In this comprehensive guide, we give you the full text of the Hamlet "To be or not to be" soliloquy and discuss everything there is to know about it, from what kinds of themes and literary devices it has to its cultural impact on society today. It is 35 lines long. To be, or not to be, that is the question, 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? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh To be or Not to be: And Everything Else You Should Know from Shakespeare 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; 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? 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. The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember'd. You can also view a contemporary English translation of the speech here. In this scene, often called the "nunnery scene," Prince Hamlet thinks about life, death, and suicide. Specifically, he wonders whether it might be preferable to commit suicide to end one's suffering and to leave behind the pain and agony associated with living. The first line and the most famous of the soliloquy raises the overarching question of the speech: "To be, or not to be," that is, "To live, or to die. Interestingly, Hamlet poses this as a question for all of humanity rather than for only himself. However, he quickly changes his tune when he considers that nobody knows for sure what happens after deathnamely whether there is an afterlife and whether this afterlife might be even worse than life. This realization is what ultimately gives Hamlet and others, he reasons "pause" when it comes to taking action i. In this sense, humans are so fearful of what comes after death and the possibility that it might be more miserable than life that they including Hamlet are rendered immobile. Title page of Hamletprinting. Shakespeare wrote more than three dozen plays in his lifetime, including what is perhaps his To be or Not to be: And Everything Else You Should Know from Shakespeare iconic, Hamlet. But where did the inspiration for this tragic, vengeful, melancholy play come from? Although nothing has been verified, rumors abound. Others believe Shakespeare was inspired to explore graver, darker themes in his works due to the passing of his own father inthe same year he wrote Hamlet. This theory seems possible, considering that many of the plays Shakespeare wrote after Hamletsuch as Macbeth and Othelloadopted similarly dark themes. Finally, some have suggested that Shakespeare was inspired to write Hamlet by the tensions that cropped up during the English Reformationwhich raised questions as to whether the Catholics or Protestants held more "legitimate" beliefs interestingly, Shakespeare intertwines both religions in the play. There are no clear answers to any of these questions, and he knows this. It is this general feeling of doubt that also plagues his fears of the afterlife, which Hamlet speaks on at length in his "To be or not to be" soliloquy. As the opening line tells us, "To be or not to be" revolves around complex notions of life and death and the afterlife. Up until this point in the play, Hamlet has continued to debate with himself whether he should kill Claudius to avenge his father. He also wonders whether it might be preferable to kill himself — this would allow him to escape his own "sea of troubles" and the "slings and arrows" of life. But like so many others, Hamlet fears the uncertainty dying brings and is tormented by the possibility of ending up in Hell —a place even more miserable than life. He is heavily plagued by this realization that the only way to find out if death is better than life is to go ahead and end it, a permanent decision one cannot take back. Despite Hamlet's attempts to logically understand the world and death, there are some things he will simply never know until he himself dies, further fueling his ambivalence. The entirety of Hamlet can be said to revolve around the theme of madness and whether Hamlet has been feigning madness or has truly gone mad or both. Before Hamlet begins his soliloquy, Claudius and Polonius are revealed to be hiding in an attempt to eavesdrop on Hamlet and later Ophelia when she enters the scene. If he is unaware, as most might assume he is, then we could view his "To be or not to be" soliloquy as the simple musings of a highly stressed-out, possibly "mad" man, who has no idea what to think anymore when it comes to life, death, and religion as a whole. Whether or not he is truly "mad" here To be or Not to be: And Everything Else You Should Know from Shakespeare later in the play is up to you to decide! In the "To be or not to be" soliloquy, Shakespeare has Hamlet use a wide array of literary devices to bring more power, imagination, and emotion to the speech. Shakespeare uses several metaphors in "To be or not to be," making it by far the most prominent literary device in the soliloquy. To be or Not to be: And Everything Else You Should Know from Shakespeare metaphor is when a thing, person, place, or idea is compared to something else in non-literal terms, usually to create a poetic or rhetorical effect. This metaphor brings clarity to the fact that death truly is permanent and that nobody knows what, if anything, comes after life. A metonym is when an idea or thing is substituted with a related idea or thing i. In "To be or not to be," Shakespeare uses the notion of sleep as a substitute for death when Hamlet says, "To die, to sleep. Because the act of sleeping looks very much like death. Think about it: we often describe death as an "eternal sleep" or "eternal slumber," right? Since the two concepts are closely related, this line is a metonym instead of a plain metaphor. The phrase "to die, to sleep" To be or Not to be: And Everything Else You Should Know from Shakespeare an example of repetition, as it appears once in line 5 and once in line 9. Hearing this phrase twice emphasizes that Hamlet is really albeit futilely attempting to logically define death by comparing it to what we all superficially know it to be: a never-ending sleep. A far less common literary device, anadiplosis is when a word or phrase that comes at the end of a clause is repeated at the very beginning of the next clause. The anadiplosis gives us a clear sense of connection between these two sentences. For example, this Calvin and Hobbes comic from depicts a humorous use of the "To be or not to be" soliloquy by poking fun at its dreary, melodramatic nature. Many movies and TV shows have references to "To be or not to be," too. In an episode of Sesame Streetfamed British actor Patrick Stewart does a parodic version of the soliloquy "B, or not a B" to teach kids the letter "B":. As you can see, over the more than four centuries since Hamlet first premiered, the "To be or not to be" soliloquy has truly made a name for itself and continues to play a big role in society. Its iconic "To be or not to be" soliloquy, spoken by the titular Hamlet in Scene 3, Act 1, has been analyzed for centuries and continues to intrigue scholars, students, and general readers alike. The soliloquy is essentially all about life and death To be or Not to be: And Everything Else You Should Know from Shakespeare "To be or not to be" means "To live or not to live" or "To live or to die". Hamlet discusses how painful and miserable human life is, and how death specifically suicide would be preferable, would it not be for the fearful uncertainty of what comes after death. Even today, we can see evidence of the cultural impact of "To be or not to be," with its numerous references in movies, TV shows, music, books, and art. It truly has a life of its own! In order to analyze other texts or even other parts of Hamlet effectively, you'll need to be familiar with common poetic devicesliterary devicesand literary elements.