Hamlets Soliloquy - To be, or not to be :: Hamlet essays

Hamlets Soliloquy - To be, or non to be Hamlets To be, or non to be soliloquy is arguably the most famous soliloquy in the history of the theatre. Even today, 400 years subsequently it was written, most people are vaguely familiar with the soliloquy evening though they may not know the play. What gives these 34 lines such customary appeal and recognition? What most Hamlets introspection has prompted scholars and theatregoers alike to ask questions about their own existence over the centuries? In this soliloquy, Shakespeare strikes a chord with a fundamental human concern the validity and worthiness of life. Would it not be easier for us to simply enter a never-ending sleep when we take ourselves facing the daunting problems of life than to suffer / the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? However, it is perhaps because we do not know what this endless sleep entails that humans commonly opt against suicide. For in that sleep of death what dreams may come / When we endure shuffled off this mortal coil / Must give us pause. Shakespeare seems to check this dilemma through his character Hamlet, and thus the phrase To be, or not to be has been immortalized indeed, it has pervaded our culture to such a remarkable extent that it has been referenced countless times in movies, television, and the media. Popular movies such as billy club Madison quote the famous phrase, and www.tobeornottobe.com serves as an online archive of Shakespeares works. Today, a Shakespeare pigeonhole is held up by the bulk of society, where they see him as the god of drama, inevitable and fundamentally superior to modern playwrights. However, this attitude is not new. Even centuries ago, the sanctity of Shakespeares work inspired and awed audiences. In a letter date October 1, 1775, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, commenting on David Garricks production of Hamlet (1742-1776) to his friend Heinrich Christian Boie, likens the To be, or not to be soliloquy to the Lords Prayer. He says that the soliloquy does not naturally yield the same impression on the auditor as Hamlets other soliloquies do, however it produces an infinitely greater effect than could be expected of an argument on suicide and death in tragedy and this is because a large fibre of the audience not only knows it by