To Be or Not to Be (III, i)

Hamlet’s Dilemma Option 1: “To Be” (that is, “to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”) = To Live? Option 2: “Not to Be” (that is, “to take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them”) = To Die? (Suicide?)

Chiasmus Repetition of ideas (or grammatical structures) in inverted order Examples: But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves. (Othello 3.3) The idea of affection occurs in "dotes" and "strongly loves"; the idea of doubting in "doubts" and "suspects". These two ideas occur in the quotation in an A B B A order, thus repeated and inverted. “Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.” (Samuel Johnson) “My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.” (Barack Obama) “Don't sweat the petty things--and don't pet the sweaty things.”

Hamlet’s Real Dilemma Option 1: “To Be” (that is, “to take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them”) = To ACT Option 2: “Not to Be” (that is, “to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”) = Not to ACT

“To Be or Not to Be” is sandwiched between … “The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.” (II, ii, 633-634) Anxious anticipation of the staged performance … that is, Hamlet’s “moment” as producer/director

Why would he be contemplating suicide at this point????

Further evidence against the traditional “suicide” interpretation: Interruption of exciting dramatic intrigue Soliloquy is posed as a philosophical debate, rather than as an individual question. That is, it transcends Hamlet’s unique situation. Imagery is that of two choices: either suffering the ills of the world, or taking action against them

Another View: “Not to Be”: “To Be”: (Medieval/Augustinian) Static & contemplative Prosser: “Wisdom was metaphysical, attained by contemplation of the divine” (164) Passive “To Be”: (Renaissance/Humanist) Dynamic & ethical Prosser: “Wisdom is ethical, developed in action in the affairs of the secular world” (164) Active

Hamlet’s Dilemma: (“to be” = Renaissance/Humanist) (“not to be” = Medieval/Augustinian) “Is it truly nobler, Hamlet asks, to endure evil passively, as all the voices of Church and State and society have insisted, or does the true nobility of that which is man demand that he actively fight and conquer the evils that beset him? Can it really be “virtue” to sit back and leave it to Heaven?” (Prosser 164) “If it is nobler to act than to contemplate, if it is nobler to use natural reason than passively to await divine revelation, can it really be nobler to assent to divine injunction when every instinct of man cries, ‘No’?” (Prosser 165) “Hamlet is trapped between two worlds. The moral code from which he cannot escape is basically medieval, but his instincts are with the Renaissance.”

HOWEVER ….. This gets further convoluted when we consider that Hamlet is trapped between two worlds: Honor Code (Medieval) – revenge or suicide to preserve family honor Christian/Religious Code (Renaissance) – forbids murder/suicide