Hamlet Group

Question:

justinbains132
justinbains132
Student
High School - 12th Grade

According to Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 3, do men accept pains of life rather then end life with suicide?

"Hamlet"

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Posted by justinbains132 on Wednesday April 22, 2009 at 7:33 PM and tagged with characters, hamlet, soliloquy, themes, to be or not to be.

Answers:

  1. mwestwood
    mwestwood Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    Who would fardels bear,/To grunt and sweat under a wary life,/But the the dread of something after death,/The undiscovered country, from whose bourn/No traveller returns, puzzlles the will,/And makes us rather bear those ills we have/Than fly to other that we know not of?/Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.

    Because man does not know what lies beyond the grave, his will is "puzzled," and he bears the vicissitudes of life that he knows as opposed to sufferings which may be beyond the grave--"the dread of something after death"--which he does not know.  This fear of the unknown is what "does make cowards of us all," so man does not kill himself.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/act-iii-scene-1-summary-anal...

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    Posted by mwestwood on Wednesday April 22, 2009 at 7:49 PM