Hamlet's soliloquy

The full lesson can be found on www.teachingenglish.com © BBC | British Council 2010 It was written by Paul Kaye, British Council, Syria. This lesson is based on the worksheet which can be found at this link. To be or not to be? Watch the video. What is the core theme of this soliloquy? Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1 Read the soliloquy.To be, or not to be, that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troublesAnd by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,No more; and by a sleep to say we endThe heart-ache and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummationDevoutly 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 offthis mortal coil,Must give us pause—there's the respectThat makes calamity of so long life.For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,The insolence of office, and the spurnsThat patient merit of th'unworthy takes,When he himself mighthis quietus makeWith a bare bodkin?Who would fardels bear,To grunt and sweat under a weary life,But that the dread of something after death,The undiscovere'd country, from whose bournNo traveller returns,puzzles the will,And makes us rather bear those ills we haveThan fly to others that we know not of?Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,And thus the native hue of resolutionIs sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,And enterprises of great pitch and momentWith this regard their currents turn awryAnd lose the name of action. Shakespeare's English and today's English Match Hamlet's words with what they might be like in modern English. But what is there after death? This is a difficult question and maybe there are more problems afterwards! So we prefer to tolerate the problems we have now. The dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all. Who wants to fight against so many problems? We could find peace by killing ourselves. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? This is one great way of avoiding these problems – then we can sleep. 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. Is it better to tolerate problems and difficulties, or to fight them? 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? But there is another problem: if we die, we sleep, and if we sleep, we might dream. But what kind of dreams would we have? 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 Opressor's wrongs Hamlet talks about various things that make life difficult. For example, hementions ‘the oppressor’s wrong’. Can you give a modern example of this?Can you match these to the following examples with Hamlet’s descriptions? Your arrogant friend never treats you with respect The proud man's contumely You feel old The whips and scorns of time The flowers you send to someone you like are returned The pangs of despised love Your legal case takes years to be decided The law's delay You are always nice to someone who treats you badly The spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes Your boss is rude to you all the time The insolence of office Think! Can you remember a time when you had to do something but couldn’t?What stopped you?• Why does Hamlet hesitate so much? Why can’t he act? Your turn! Be an agony aunt. We are going to write some advice for Hamlet. Look at the questions below.What would you say to him?• Is it better to ‘to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them?’• Is it better to ‘quietus makeWith a bare bodkin?’ than to ‘bear the whips and scorns of time’?• Is it right to feel ‘The dread of something after death’?