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Shakespeare's Hamlet 8 To Be or Not to Be 167 Views
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Description:
What does Hamlet's "to be, or not to be..." speech reveal about his character? Besides the fact that he's super comfortable talking to himself, of course.
Transcript
- 00:00
Thank you We sneak in Shakespeare's Hamlet To be or
- 00:07
not eyelash What does hamlet's to be or not to
- 00:13
be speech reveal about his character so it's it's hamlet
- 00:17
contemplating whether it's worth living or basically and the problem
- 00:22
he's running up against is that as a christian believer
Full Transcript
- 00:25
he's brought in a church that believes that if you
- 00:28
commit suicide you go to hell So you're saying to
- 00:31
be or not to be if if i exist that
- 00:34
i have to deal with all this struggle right it's
- 00:36
like life is nothing but this endless log of pain
- 00:40
And if i kill myself and just free myself in
- 00:42
the pain well then i go to hell and burn
- 00:44
eternally for all forever right So he's trying to figure
- 00:47
out what he's going to do with himself and actually
- 00:50
offering like a very touching in some ways explanation of
- 00:54
of how someone at the time might have contemplated suicide
- 00:56
and what would have kept them from suicide But at
- 01:00
the same time claudius and polonius are actually eavesdropping on
- 01:03
him Remember they're trying to figure out what is going
- 01:05
on with hamlet Claudius for obvious reasons is really anxious
- 01:09
about hamlet because he's the son of the guy he
- 01:11
just killed And wants to make sure that he's kind
- 01:13
of under control And polonius is just like a stodgy
- 01:16
old jerk who wants to control everything kind of be
- 01:20
big man on campus So right so they're both spying
- 01:23
on him So there has been some critical interpretations that
- 01:26
believe that the whole to be or not to be
- 01:27
speech is actually performing right it's not a genuine soliloquy
- 01:32
in which he's actually talking himself maybe it's a monologue
- 01:35
in which he's actually putting on a show to kind
- 01:38
of make claudius and polonius think that he is suicidal
- 01:41
when in fact he's not because it definitely does direct
- 01:44
attention away from his desire to get revenge and more
- 01:48
towards his figure out whether it's like worthwhile to exist
- 01:51
Right so less of the anger more of the angst
- 01:58
What does hamlet's to be or not to be Speech 00:02:00.697 --> [endTime] reveal about his character
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