HAMLET

A prince who has proven he can think his way around anything now tests whether thought is worth the trouble of living. He reasons toward suicide and talks himself out of it by accident.

1:18Dramatic20s–30sAdvanced

The speech118 words · 4 beats

0:00 / 1:18

Off-book

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 come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause.turn

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.

✦ AIStudy this passageplain English

Three ways in, all in plain English. Side by side pairs the original with a modern rendering, line by line. In contexttells you what’s happening and what the character wants. Glossary unpacks the tricky words. Pick a lens above.

AI-generated study aid — trust the original text first; treat this as a gloss.

Takes

No takes yet — be the first to log how you’d play it.

Speaking to: Himself, aloud, believing he is unobserved.
What just happened: He has just arranged to catch the king's conscience with a play, and the plan gives him no comfort. He drifts into the lobby, still holding a book, and stops.
Objective: To argue himself into knowing whether death is a door or a trap.
The turn: 'To die, to sleep— / To sleep, perchance to dream' — the seductive case for death snags on the one thing he can't rule out.
Watch out for: The trap is playing it as a decision already made, mournful and slow. It is live reasoning; each 'to sleep' is a fresh temptation he interrupts. Keep the antitheses moving, not intoned.

Full work: Hamlet New to the vocabulary? What’s a beat? →

More from Hamlet1

HAMLET1:00A prince, handed the skull of a man who once carried him as a child, discovers that all wit and beauty come to the same dirt. Grief cools into something almost peaceful.

HAMLET

Hamlet · William Shakespeare · 1:18 · 118 words

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 come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.

wrote