Hamlet’s Soliloquy, “To Be Or Not To Be,” a Modern English Translation – The LitCharts Blog

Image source: Stratford Festival

Hamlet’s soliloquy contains what is probably the most-quoted line in all of Shakespeare:  ‘to be or not to be.’ TIME’s compilation of the top 15 Shakespeare quotes put it at the top of their list. It’s likely that you have heard, read, or said the famous opening words of the speech: ‘to be or not to be.’

There’s more to it, of course, than “to be or not to be.” Here are some features the speech that you may not have been aware of.

First, here is Hamlet’s soliloquy in its entirety.

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 heartache 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—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. There’s the respect

That 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 despised love, the law’s delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th’ 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 traveler 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.

A modern English translation of Hamlet’s soliloquy

The speech is a stunning work of art and the most-studied of all of Shakespeare’s plays. It is best untampered. However, a modern English rendering can untangle some of the puzzling lines and Elizabethan turns of phrase.

Ben Florman, LitCharts’s co-founder, wrote the following modern English translation of Hamlet’s soliloquy:

To live, or to die? That is the question.

Is it nobler to suffer through all the terrible things

fate throws at you, or to fight off your troubles,

and, in doing so, end them completely?

To die, to sleep—because that’s all dying is—

and by a sleep I mean an end to all the heartache

and the thousand injuries that we are vulnerable to—

that’s an end to be wished for!

To die, to sleep. To sleep, perhaps to dream—yes,

but there’s there’s the catch. Because the kinds of

dreams that might come in that sleep of death—

after you have left behind your mortal body—

are something to make you anxious.

That’s the consideration that makes us suffer

the calamities of life for so long.

Because who would bear all the trials and tribulations of time—

the oppression of the powerful, the insults from arrogant men,

the pangs of unrequited love, the slowness of justice,

the disrespect of people in office,

and the general abuse of good people by bad—

when you could just settle all your debts

using nothing more than an unsheathed dagger?

Who would bear his burdens, and grunt

and sweat through a tiring life, if they weren’t frightened

of what might happen after death—

that undiscovered country from which no visitor returns,

which we wonder about and which makes us

prefer the troubles we know rather than fly off

to face the ones we don’t? Thus, the fear of

death makes us all cowards, and our natural

willingness to act is made weak by too much thinking.

Actions of great urgency and importance

get thrown off course because of this sort of thinking,

and they cease to be actions at all.

But wait, here is the beautiful Ophelia!

[To OPHELIA] Beauty, may you forgive all my sins in your prayers.

Hamlet’s soliloquy contains other famous Shakespeare quotes.

In the soliloquy there is more than just the famous line “to be or not to be.”  You may have heard these Shakespearean quotes as well.

• Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles.
• To die, to sleep. / To sleep, perchance to dream
• Ay, there’s the rub,
• Shuffled off this mortal coil
• The pangs of despised love
• To grunt and sweat under a weary life
• Thus conscience does make cowards of us all
• All my sins remembered.

Understanding Hamlet’s Soliloquy, and the meaning of ‘To be or not to be’

What is the meaning of Hamlet’s soliloquy? Here’s a brief explanation of the meaning and themes, drawn from LitCharts’s comprehensive literary guide to Hamlet.

While Polonius and Claudius hide and eavesdrop, Hamlet breaks into this most famous soliloquy, perhaps the best-known speech in the English language. Hamlet returns to the question of suicide, wondering if it would be preferable to end his life or not.

Though Hamlet’s language has grown more direct from its earlier references to “dew,” it still speaks to his passivity in the face of desperation. He phrases the question of death in the abstract with the infinitive verb forms “to be, or not to be”—and makes it “the question” of humanity, as opposed to a personal matter. These choices imply that the decision whether or not to exist is a constant struggle for each person, a struggle that Hamlet tries to mediate through the metric of what is “nobler in the mind.” This phrase implies that death is evaluated based on the perceived correctness or social value, as opposed to, say, a universal ethical system.

For the two options themselves, Hamlet chooses evocative images: “To be” is put in relatively more passive terms as a continuous process of “suffering” an onslaught of external attacks from “outrageous fortune”—that is to say, the constant influx of events that cannot be shifted in one’s destiny. Suicide, on the other hand, is presented as an active fight that wages war on “a sea of troubles” and, indeed, is successful in the endeavor. The phrase “by opposing end them” seems noble or glorious, but what it literally means is to vanquish one’s “outrageous fortune” by ending one’s life. Thus Hamlet presents his lack of suicide not as the result of insufficient desperation, but rather his apathy from wishing to take on such a fight. Life becomes, for him, a constant decision of whether he will finally arrive at sufficient motivation to shift course and end his and/or Claudius’s life.

12 Facts about Hamlet’s Famous ‘To be or not to be’ Soliloquy

Watch these famous recitations of the soliloquy.

Mel Gibson as Hamlet performs the soliloquy.

Here is David Tennant, former Doctor Who, and award-winning Shakespearean actor in his critically acclaimed performance.

This is Kenneth Branagh in his performance of the soliloquy.

And, true to form, Benedict Cumberbatch, seizes the audience with his interpretation.