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Hamlet's Soliloquy To Be Or Shall He Die?

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Shall he live or shall he die? That is the question. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince Hamlet talks about committing suicide. His to be or not to be soliloquy is his most famous in the play, and probably the most famous soliloquy ever written. As Hamlet seems to grow insane throughout the play, he also grows suicidal. In the soliloquy of Act 3 Scene 1, the theme is conflict, and suicide.

Shakespeare tries to portray Hamlet in a more diverse way when the prince speaks his words in Act 3 Scene 1. “To be or not to be”, (Act III, Scene I) is the most famous line in English literature, and so is the soliloquy itself. When Hamlet speaks in this soliloquy, he is almost toying with the idea of suicide. This is because he never talks about his feelings, or his pain. He only talks about what he’s currently going through. Instead of talking of his feelings, he seems to only want to build his “courage” to commit suicide, but there’s no real courage in the act of committing suicide. He’ll only prove himself to be a coward by committing suicide because get all of his problems over with rather than attempting to conquer them. Hamlet argues with …show more content…

This thought takes on a different personality of Hamlet. It’s as if the prince is two people in one. In one hand you have a person who is angered by the death of his father, and believes it was his uncle who murdered him, so he wants to avenge his death. On the other hand you have the selfish, and cowardly person who would rather take the easy way out then face their problems. Put those two together and you have Hamlet’s to be or not to be speech. By putting these two personalities into one person, Shakespeare expresses what opposite personalities can do to a person. Opposites do not mix, but when they attempt to, you get conflict. Conflict such as raising the question “Should I kill

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