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Shakespeare's Hamlet 8 To Be or Not to Be 167 Views


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Description:

What does Hamlet's "to be, or not to be..." speech reveal about his character? Besides the fact that he's super comfortable talking to himself, of course. 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak in Shakespeare's Hamlet To be or

00:07

not eyelash What does hamlet's to be or not to

00:13

be speech reveal about his character so it's it's hamlet

00:17

contemplating whether it's worth living or basically and the problem

00:22

he's running up against is that as a christian believer

00:25

he's brought in a church that believes that if you

00:28

commit suicide you go to hell So you're saying to

00:31

be or not to be if if i exist that

00:34

i have to deal with all this struggle right it's

00:36

like life is nothing but this endless log of pain

00:40

And if i kill myself and just free myself in

00:42

the pain well then i go to hell and burn

00:44

eternally for all forever right So he's trying to figure

00:47

out what he's going to do with himself and actually

00:50

offering like a very touching in some ways explanation of

00:54

of how someone at the time might have contemplated suicide

00:56

and what would have kept them from suicide But at

01:00

the same time claudius and polonius are actually eavesdropping on

01:03

him Remember they're trying to figure out what is going

01:05

on with hamlet Claudius for obvious reasons is really anxious

01:09

about hamlet because he's the son of the guy he

01:11

just killed And wants to make sure that he's kind

01:13

of under control And polonius is just like a stodgy

01:16

old jerk who wants to control everything kind of be

01:20

big man on campus So right so they're both spying

01:23

on him So there has been some critical interpretations that

01:26

believe that the whole to be or not to be

01:27

speech is actually performing right it's not a genuine soliloquy

01:32

in which he's actually talking himself maybe it's a monologue

01:35

in which he's actually putting on a show to kind

01:38

of make claudius and polonius think that he is suicidal

01:41

when in fact he's not because it definitely does direct

01:44

attention away from his desire to get revenge and more

01:48

towards his figure out whether it's like worthwhile to exist

01:51

Right so less of the anger more of the angst

01:58

What does hamlet's to be or not to be Speech 00:02:00.697 --> [endTime] reveal about his character

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