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To be or not to be...I have a question

To be or not to be...I have a question

tcamp1 Profile Photo
tcamp1
#1To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/28/13 at 7:16pm

So I was taught in AP English in high school that Hamlet's speech is about if he should kill himself.

Last week in one of my modules (I'm studying in London for the semester), a trained Shakespearean actor came to talk. He asked what the speech was about and when I answered, he pointed at me and told me I was wrong (in front of the whoe class, mind you). He said the speech is actually about if he should kill Claudius, which woud get him killed in the process.

What does everyone think/what have you been told?


"To love another person is to see the face of God." -Les Miserables

#2To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/28/13 at 7:29pm

When I read this in high school, I was taught the same thing. Hamlet was contemplating suicide.

Just the other day, I went over it in my college humanities class, I was given a different interpretation. It could be beause we are "older" and more "mature," so we could take the reading to a whole new level and go more into dept with it. From what my professor said, I got that sense that the speech wasn't so much about Hamlet, but more so Hamlet just thinking to himself, posing a question to himself then answering it himself. He was wondering about death and the difference between death and sleep beacuse both are similar. He asks if death is like sleep, why don't we all just kill ourselves. But we don't know what is going to happen in the after life, or if there is life after death. This is why more people are inclinded to not kill themselves beacuse we are afraid of the unknown. Except in sleep, we can wake up. His questioning of death and looking within himself instead of relying on the Church makes Hamlet a modern man.

But then again, all literature is subject to different interpretation. No one would truly know what Shakespeare meant in Hamlet's speech but Shakespeare.

tcamp1 Profile Photo
tcamp1
#2To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/28/13 at 7:34pm

Thank you for that detailed response! It sounds like all interpretations are along the same line, but yes, who knows what the right answer is/if there is an answer at all sometimes!!


"To love another person is to see the face of God." -Les Miserables

Jungle Red Profile Photo
Jungle Red
#3To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/28/13 at 7:41pm

I just read the speech again and Hamlet talks about himself through the entire thing. If he is talking about Claudius, then wouldn't he mention him?

I don't think he's suicidal though. Hamlet has too much at stake - he really needs to kill Claudius and avenge his father's death. He can't do that if he's dead.

I don't know what it means.

trentsketch Profile Photo
trentsketch
#4To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/28/13 at 8:47pm

Structurally, it could be argued that the speech if foreshadowing the death of Claudius and Hamlet at the end. In the context of the scene itself, it's Hamlet pondering death/suicide. Whether it's his own suicide or the concept of suicide in the abstract is up for interpretation. I was always taught it was Hamlet contemplating suicide, but I do think the monologue is a bit too distant and impersonal to really be about him contemplating his own suicide.

luckyleo81
#5To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/28/13 at 10:22pm

I think that actor's interpretation of the soliloquy can be refuted by the line "When he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin" Certainly the clearest and truest reading of the line is someone turning a sharp object against himself. Why would Shakespeare have Hamlet say this if Hamlet isn't thinking about suicide? And also, I think when Jungle Red makes the point that Hamlet wouldn't think of suicide because he has too much at stake...well...can't you read that as the main point of the monologue. Hamlet's asking himself why he's putting up with all of this miserable crap. What's keeping him from just taking his sword and escaping it all? Of course, the answer he comes to is that he's not sure that just because he dies he won't have to deal with it all after death.

luckyleo81
#7To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/28/13 at 10:57pm

Agreed, that scenario could make sense in the play depending on the reader's or production's concept of Hamlet as a character. I've always resisted this argument though because it makes me kinda sad to think that the most famous lines of the English language were written to be cunning and not profound.

Gothampc
#8To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/29/13 at 8:18am

I would pose the thought that Hamlet is asking himself "To be involved or not to be involved." I think the speech is about should he remain and do nothing, should he remain and take action or should he leave and make a new situation for himself, whether that be by death or leaving the country.


If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

henrikegerman Profile Photo
henrikegerman
#9To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/29/13 at 8:43am

I don't think Hamlet fears being killed for killing Claudius. More likely he fears what his death would be like should he kill Claudius and make an immoral choice in doing so (Hamlet is, among other things, plagued by uncertainty that the ghost is telling him the truth). Will he be dooming his soul? His contemplation of suicide is emblematic.

There is a difference between actually being suicidal and pondering the idea of suicide.

There is nothing in the play to suggest Hamlet wants to be dead. There is also nothing in the play to suggest that Hamlet's inaction in killing Claudius is caused by his fear of being killed in retribution. Hamlet's inaction is based on conscience, uncertainty in knowing what is right. He neither seeks death nor is he afraid to die if it is the right thing to do. But he is not sure it is the right thing to do.

The line in the soliloquy that is key here is "Thus conscience makes cowards of us all." Hamlet, is, per usual, philosophical, thoughtful, contemplative. It is not surprising that he thinks about what death means.

The reason he ponders the choice to die is because it is emblematic of willfully doing something with an unknown consequence. And, in this case, an action which might doom his immortal (or is it?) soul if he is an agent not of heaven's retribution but of hell's. Thus, exacerbating the potential for a painful and doomed afterlife (if in fact that is what happens to those who make immoral choices) should he be sinning in killing Claudius by exposing his soul to torment in death.

Goes without saying, but just my interp.

Just as Hamlet chooses not to kill Claudius while he is at prayer lest Claudius go to a peaceful shriven death, Hamlet ponders the uncertainties of death as a function of sin and penance in light of his own potential act of killing his uncle. The pall of regicide, coupled with the uncertainty of the murdered monarch's guilt has a clear parallel: Elizabeth's indecision to execute Mary, her cousin and her possible fears for her soul after Mary was beheaded. Reportedly Elizabeth seriously, religiously questioned what having killed her cousin Queen Mary would bode for her soul's eventual rest.

In addition, what follows in two scenes builds further on Hamlet's uncertainty and reinforces his concern over the ethics of his action (and, by extension what his eventual death will mean for his soul) i.e. his meeting with the players and resolve to test Claudius's guilt through the king's reception of a performance of Murder of Gonzago.














Updated On: 1/30/13 at 08:43 AM

#10To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/29/13 at 10:21am

Hamlet is worried that if he takes action against Claudius, he might miss the Elsinore Spelling Bee.

GavestonPS Profile Photo
GavestonPS
#11To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/29/13 at 10:35pm

I don't know if Elizabeth seriously worried about her soul or quite rightly worried that the precedent of killing a divine-right monarch might embolden assassins against herself.

But I love henrik's interpretation. I honestly don't know why Hamlet would contemplate suicide; he could just keep his mouth shut if he lacked the courage to take action.

It makes complete sense that the prince is contemplating life v. death, however: his father's ghost has been appearing and claiming to have been murdered; Hamlet himself is contemplating killing his king/uncle and perhaps dying in the attempt, etc.

tcamp1 Profile Photo
tcamp1
#12To be or not to be...I have a question
Posted: 1/30/13 at 6:27pm

Thank you, everyone for your thought-out and researched responses! They are all a big help to me as a theatre major, and thespian in general!


"To love another person is to see the face of God." -Les Miserables