Hamlet (Vol. 44) | Harold Jenkins (essay date 1991)
Harold Jenkins (essay date 1991)
SOURCE: "'To be, or not to be': Hamlet's Dilemma," in Hamlet Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1 & 2, Summer and Winter, 1991, pp. 8-24.
[In the following essay, Jenkins responds to the criticism regarding Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" speech, arguing that while it may not seem to be related to Hamlet's particular problems, the speech is evoked by Hamlet's dramatic role as revenger.]
Ham. To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to:'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep:
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may...
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