Hamlet’s 3rd soliloquy (“To be, or not to be”)

Let’s begin Act 3 Open to page 160

“To be, or not to be” What is Hamlet’s dilemma? How would you describe his state of mind?

1. To be, or not to be. The question is should I continue living or should I end it all? Is life worth living or not?

2 Which is more noble –to endure the suffering of life or to fight against it by putting an end to life?

3 To die means to sleep forever, to put an end to consciously enduring the pain of living life as a human being. That’s an ending to wish for – just for it all to stop.

4 But does it all stop after death? But in that sleep, we could dream (be haunted by thoughts). That’s the problem. We are afraid of the possibility of what dreams might come to us in this eternal sleep. They probably won’t be good dreams! And this is a sleep that we cannot wake from.

5 That’s the consideration that stops us from committing suicide. For who would agree to suffer through the whips of scorn, contempt, rejected love, disrespect, humiliation, injustice? –when you’re capable of releasing yourself from it?!

6 Who would endure this unless they dreaded the unknown of what comes after life?

7 Overthinking takes the action out of plan and makes us all cowards.