To Be Or Not To Be

Soliloquy 
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 wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, 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. There's the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life:
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? Who would Fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered 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,
And thus the Native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard their Currents turn awry,
And lose the name of Action. Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia? Nymph, in thy Orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
My interpretation
To become this unknown person or to stay comfortable in who I am,
Should I keep on living this tragic life,
Or stand up to the evil that is surrounding me,
By standing up, destroy the evil,
But become a person that I'd never think of could be me,
If I do stand up I will end the pain and suffering,
Maybe even get the chance to live life the way I want,
What can be accomplished when the struggles of daily life are gone,
Stop and examine this disastrous life,
Who could deal with the humiliations of life, the abuse from superiors, the insults from arrogant men,
The justice system is inefficient,
Why deal with this all when you can end it easily with a knife,
Who would struggle through a terrible life unless they feared the afterlife,
We would rather deal with the terrible life than face what comes after,
Contemplating death makes us all cowards,
Thinking too much makes us lose our will to live,
Actions that should be completed are put off,
Hamlet then is distracted by a beautiful girl walking past.
Thoughts
Hamlet seems like he has his stuff figured out. He know that he has to kill his uncle and is willing to do it. He doesn't, however, know how this will affect his character. It seems to me that he is not afraid to die, as he is not afraid of the afterlife. He speaks of the reason people go on living terrible lives is because they are afraid of what lies ahead after it ends. He, however, is not one of these people. He is willing to take action to end his suffering, whether that be attempting to make it better on the outside or eventually ending his life. He is willing to go against what the crowd believes is the right thing to do and take action. He knows that life is not getting any easier at its current pace and maybe a change in character will push his life in the right direction. He is scared of this change in character as it is someone/something he is not familiar with. Can you imagine making a decision that will COMPLETELY define who you are/how you live life. As we talked about during class, most decisions define who you are/how you live but this one is a decision that will be unchangeable. Hamlet will never be able to return to the life he was previously living. This soliloquy is him expressing his thoughts on the value of his life and how his life will be after the murder.