"To be or not to be...

" is the famous opening phrase of a soliloquy in the "Nunn ery Scene"[1] of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In the speech, a despondent or feigning Prince Hamlet contemplates death and sui cide. He bemoans the pains and unfairness of life but acknowledges the alternati ve might be still worse. The speech functions within the play to explain Hamlet' s hesitation to directly and immediately revenge his father's murder (discovered in Act I) on his uncle, stepfather, and new king Claudius. Claudius and his min ister Polonius[2] are eavesdropping:[3] the speech dashes Polonius's hopes that Hamlet was suffering from "neglected love" for his daughter Ophelia and worries the king. He had already sent for Hamlet's college friends Rosencrantz and Guild enstern: following Hamlet's murder of Polonius, he subsequently dupes them into an attempt to ferry Hamlet to England for a distant execution. At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet addresses his former lover Ophelia directly. The scene and Ophelia's subsequent distress are resonant with her own later dea th or suicide in Act IV, but it is unclear in the script whether or not he was a ware of her presence during his lines. "To be or not to be..." is the famous opening phrase of a soliloquy in the "Nunn ery Scene"[1] of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In the speech, a despondent or feigning Prince Hamlet contemplates death and sui cide. He bemoans the pains and unfairness of life but acknowledges the alternati ve might be still worse. The speech functions within the play to explain Hamlet' s hesitation to directly and immediately revenge his father's murder (discovered in Act I) on his uncle, stepfather, and new king Claudius. Claudius and his min ister Polonius[2] are eavesdropping:[3] the speech dashes Polonius's hopes that Hamlet was suffering from "neglected love" for his daughter Ophelia and worries the king. He had already sent for Hamlet's college friends Rosencrantz and Guild enstern: following Hamlet's murder of Polonius, he subsequently dupes them into an attempt to ferry Hamlet to England for a distant execution. At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet addresses his former lover Ophelia directly. The scene and Ophelia's subsequent distress are resonant with her own later dea th or suicide in Act IV, but it is unclear in the script whether or not he was a ware of her presence during his lines. "To be or not to be..." is the famous opening phrase of a soliloquy in the "Nunn ery Scene"[1] of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In the speech, a despondent or feigning Prince Hamlet contemplates death and sui cide. He bemoans the pains and unfairness of life but acknowledges the alternati ve might be still worse. The speech functions within the play to explain Hamlet' s hesitation to directly and immediately revenge his father's murder (discovered in Act I) on his uncle, stepfather, and new king Claudius. Claudius and his min ister Polonius[2] are eavesdropping:[3] the speech dashes Polonius's hopes that Hamlet was suffering from "neglected love" for his daughter Ophelia and worries the king. He had already sent for Hamlet's college friends Rosencrantz and Guild enstern: following Hamlet's murder of Polonius, he subsequently dupes them into an attempt to ferry Hamlet to England for a distant execution. At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet addresses his former lover Ophelia directly. The scene and Ophelia's subsequent distress are resonant with her own later dea th or suicide in Act IV, but it is unclear in the script whether or not he was a ware of her presence during his lines. "To be or not to be..." is the famous opening phrase of a soliloquy in the "Nunn ery Scene"[1] of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In the speech, a despondent or feigning Prince Hamlet contemplates death and sui cide. He bemoans the pains and unfairness of life but acknowledges the alternati ve might be still worse. The speech functions within the play to explain Hamlet' s hesitation to directly and immediately revenge his father's murder (discovered in Act I) on his uncle, stepfather, and new king Claudius. Claudius and his min ister Polonius[2] are eavesdropping:[3] the speech dashes Polonius's hopes that Hamlet was suffering from "neglected love" for his daughter Ophelia and worries

the king. He had already sent for Hamlet's college friends Rosencrantz and Guild enstern: following Hamlet's murder of Polonius, he subsequently dupes them into an attempt to ferry Hamlet to England for a distant execution. At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet addresses his former lover Ophelia directly. The scene and Ophelia's subsequent distress are resonant with her own later dea th or suicide in Act IV, but it is unclear in the script whether or not he was a ware of her presence during his lines. "To be or not to be..." is the famous opening phrase of a soliloquy in the "Nunn ery Scene"[1] of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In the speech, a despondent or feigning Prince Hamlet contemplates death and sui cide. He bemoans the pains and unfairness of life but acknowledges the alternati ve might be still worse. The speech functions within the play to explain Hamlet' s hesitation to directly and immediately revenge his father's murder (discovered in Act I) on his uncle, stepfather, and new king Claudius. Claudius and his min ister Polonius[2] are eavesdropping:[3] the speech dashes Polonius's hopes that Hamlet was suffering from "neglected love" for his daughter Ophelia and worries the king. He had already sent for Hamlet's college friends Rosencrantz and Guild enstern: following Hamlet's murder of Polonius, he subsequently dupes them into an attempt to ferry Hamlet to England for a distant execution. At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet addresses his former lover Ophelia directly. The scene and Ophelia's subsequent distress are resonant with her own later dea th or suicide in Act IV, but it is unclear in the script whether or not he was a ware of her presence during his lines.