Hamlet: "To Be or Not to Be" Essay

“To be, or not to be, that is the question.” It is a quote almost universally known in the Western world, and perhaps one of the most famous existential lines ever written. In the famous soliloquy which follows, we confront, in all their complexity, the metaphysical problems which bedevil Hamlet. The issues he faces in this passage, and the way he deals with them, decides the path of the play. These key issues include his attitude toward life and death, his choice whether to act on his initial drive for vengeance on Claudius the king, his mother the queen and the court of Denmark and should he take the noble but passive road to of Christian acceptance and accept the blows which fall upon him. These are the issues which will be discussed in detail.
The concepts of life and death play an important role in ‘Hamlet’. Some critical accounts suggest that it is what is known as a ‘choric’ speech, that is, it can stand alone as an extended meditation, or discursive moral argument, irrespective of the character in the play and whatever he may be engaged in. Nonetheless it is also clearly embedded in the very real problems which are causing Hamlet such anguish. There are many problems for Hamlet surrounding death and the way we reach our mortal destination. He believes if evil deeds went unavenged then choosing death by one’s own hand was a way for the man of honour to expunge the stain upon the family name. But for a Christian, such a passage could only lead to that “undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns.” Hamlet suggests it is the dread of what lies ‘beyond’ that keeps men such as himself, weary of the world, sad and lonely, from taking their own life prematurely and to face the degradation and toil of everyday existence, while others less worthy grow prosperous and contented. In this admission Hamlet is betraying a relative agnostic cynicism. He is admitting it is not so much Christian virtue which prevents most men from committing suicide but mostly the fear of what lies beyond that prompts much of what passes as virtue. It is not until later in the play that Hamlet accepts his own fate and when Laertes challenges him to a duel he merely replies to Horatio “Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is’t to leave betimes? Let be.” His previous uncertainty reflected in the statement “to be or not to be” contrasts with a more developed and wise response of “Let be” in Act 5 Scene 2 l. 196.
Throughout the play Hamlet struggles with the choice if and how to take his revenge on the people who he feels have betrayed him and his father. We witness in Act 1 Scene 2 the genuine sorrow demonstrated by Hamlet even after two months of his father’s death. The fact that Hamlet is the only one mourning his dead father angers him, and feels a sense of betrayal from his uncle, his mother and the court, represented by Polonius. But it is not until Act 3 Scene 1 in Hamlets third soliloquy that we realize Hamlets intentions of acting on his feelings. This soliloquy separates the play into two parts; a one of plots, schemes and discussion of revenge and one of acting on his intentions. Hamlet recognises the danger of drifting into a moral vacuum, of neither taking up arms to gain revenge, nor accepting his fate lie some kind of saintly pacifist. And the greatest danger is that he will continue to drift aimlessly unable to break the cycle of apathy and inaction. The sin of failing to act and quietism was considered a sin by the early Church fathers and it is this kind of negative energy that most debilitates Hamlet. He is more motivated by eternal punishment than moved to action by righteous anger. What Hamlet needed was something to throw his nervous indecision onto and take action. We see by the outcome of the play that Hamlet has indeed taken action and avenged his father by killing his uncle, Claudius, the murderer of his father.
Hamlet’s Christian morals and background greatly influence Hamlets decisions and judgements throughout the play. We find him torn between two choices, one the Christian and one the easy way out; the one of suicide. Should he take the noble but passive road of Christian acceptance and “suffer the slings and arrow of outrageous fortune?” Should he turn the other cheek and, Christ-like accept the blows which fall upon him. This is the call to Christian sanctity, of avoiding the sin of revenge, one which he will ignore at his peril. Hamlet sees himself as the ‘parfit knight’ and is loath to abandon this carefully cultivated self-image. As a perfect Christian gentleman he should not kill, however much provoked. However the perfect gentleman is also the warrior who will retaliate against those who wrong him and bring his good name into disrepute. He is the one who “take arms against the sea of trouble”, and take the fight to those who have wronged his father. That fight might even be an impossible one, yet it is a fight which must be fought. This view is from a man who sets himself very high ethical standards in a kingdom where bribery, deception and treachery have become the norm.
The speech Hamlet gives in his third soliloquy which starts with the phrase “to be or not to be” raises many issues embedded in the play. These issues and the way Hamlet deals with them decides the play, and the outcome of it. These issues include his attitude toward life, death and of his mortality, the decision he has to make whether to act on his early intentions to gain revenge on the people who have wronged him and his father, and of his Christian justification of his destructive actions. It can concluded that Hamlet avenged his father but at the dear cost of his own life.

By Jesse Rand