The exact words
What Hamlet is asking
By Act 3 of Hamlet, the prince knows from his father’s ghost that his uncle Claudius murdered the old king, married his mother and took the throne. He has promised revenge but has not acted. Alone on stage, he begins the most famous speech in English with a question that goes beyond his own situation: “To be, or not to be, that is the question.”
He spells it out. Is it nobler to “suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” to put up with whatever life throws at you, or to “take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them”? Ending them seems to mean dying. Death, he reasons, is like sleep, “a consummation devoutly to be wished.” Then he catches himself: “To sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub.” No one knows what dreams may come in death.
The answer he reaches
Hamlet lists the injustices people put up with: “the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,” the “law’s delay” and “the insolence of office.” Who would bear them, he asks, if they could simply end their lives, except for “the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns”? Fear of the unknown, he concludes, “makes cowards of us all,” and “the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.” Thinking too much stops people from acting, which is also Hamlet’s own problem.
What makes the speech so powerful is that he speaks about “us,” not “me.” It is a meditation on why anyone keeps going. It also has an audience he does not know about: in most readings the king and Polonius are hiding nearby to spy on him.
How to use it
The opening line has become a joke format for any choice, from “to text or not to text” upward. In serious writing, remember that the speech is about life and death, and quote more than the first line; “the undiscovered country” and “there’s the rub” carry the real argument.
What people get wrong
Hamlet wondering whether to take revenge.
The speech is about existence itself, whether living is worth the pain. Hamlet does not mention revenge at all, and he speaks about all people, not just himself.
Timeline
- Act 1Hamlet learns from his father's ghost that his uncle Claudius murdered his father to take the throne.
- Act 3, Scene 1Alone, or so he thinks, Hamlet weighs life against death in the soliloquy. Claudius and Polonius are secretly listening.
- 1603The First Quarto prints a garbled version beginning “To be, or not to be, ay there's the point.”
- 1604–1623The Second Quarto and the First Folio give the version quoted today.
Use it in a speech
Questions people ask
What does “To be, or not to be” mean?
Hamlet is asking whether it is better to exist or not to exist, to go on living and suffer life's troubles or to die and end them.
Is Hamlet thinking about suicide?
Most readers think so. He compares death to sleep, then stops at the thought that death may bring “dreams” we cannot predict, and says this dread is what makes us endure life.
Who hears the speech?
Hamlet speaks it alone, but in most readings King Claudius and Polonius are hiding nearby, spying on him, waiting for Ophelia to meet him.
What does “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” mean?
The blows and wounds that bad luck deals us, pictured as stones from a sling and arrows shot by a cruel fortune.
Cite this quote
These cite the original source directly, so you can use them in an essay or paper. Always check your teacher's required style.