Saturday, August 3, 2019
The Soliloquies of Shakespeares Hamlet - To be or not to be Soliloquy
The ââ¬Å"To be or not to beâ⬠Soliloquy in Hamlet à à à à One soliloquy stands out above the others in William Shakespeareââ¬â¢s Hamlet. Of the seven soliloquies by the protagonist, the ââ¬Å"To be or not to beâ⬠soliloquy is universally recognized as superior to the others. This essay considers this most famous soliloquy. à Marchette Chute in ââ¬Å"The Story Told in Hamletâ⬠describes just how close the hero is to suicide while reciting his most famous soliloquy: à à Hamlet enters, desperate enough by this time to be thinking of suicide. It seems to him that it would be such a sure way of escape from torment, just to cease existing, and he gives the famous speech on suicide that has never been worn thin by repetition. ââ¬Å"To be, or not to be . . .â⬠It would be easy to stop living. à To die, to sleep; No more. And by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to . . . à But Hamlet has never succeeded in deceiving himself, and he cannot do so now. . . . [He] will not . . . be able to kill himself. He has thought too much about it to be able to take any action. (39) à Considering the context of this most notable soliloquy, the speech appears to be a reaction from the determination which ended the ââ¬Å"rogue and peasant slaveâ⬠soliloquy. In fact, in the Quarto of 1603 the ââ¬Å"To beâ⬠speech comes BEFORE the playersââ¬â¢ scene and the nunnery scene ââ¬â and is thus more logically positioned to show its emotional connection to the previous soliloquy (Nevo 46). Lawrence Danson in the essay ââ¬Å"Tragic Alphabetâ⬠discusses the most famous of soliloquies as involving an ââ¬Å"eternal dilemmaâ⬠: à à The problem of timeââ¬â¢s discrediting effects upon human actions and intentions ... ...evin, Harry. ââ¬Å"An Explication of the Playerââ¬â¢s Speech.â⬠Modern Critical Interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rpt. from The Question of Hamlet. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959. à Nevo, Ruth. ââ¬Å"Acts III and IV: Problems of Text and Staging.â⬠Modern Critical Interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rpt. from Tragic Form in Shakespeare. N.p.: Princeton University Press, 1972. à Rosenberg, Marvin. ââ¬Å"Laertes: An Impulsive but Earnest Young Aristocrat.â⬠Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: Univ. of Delaware P., 1992. à Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html Ã
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