To+be,+or+not+to+be,+that+is+the+question+(3.1.56-89)

=**The Soliloquy**=

To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer (65) 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 (70) That flesh is heir to, 'tis a [|consummation] Devoutly to be wish'd. 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], (75) 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 [|despis'd] love, the law's delay, (80) 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, (85) But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd 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? (90) 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], (95) And lose the name of action.-- [|Soft you now!] The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy [|orisons] Be all my sins remember'd.

=How it reveals Hamlet's Character=


 * It reveals that he can be indecisive. This is supported by the quote " To be, or not to be: that is the question." He can't decide whether it is worth to live or not.
 * It shows that he is a man of reason. He begins by stating the main question and then continues to look at the issues surrounding each possible choice. This is a reasonable approach done by a man of reason, hence, he's a man of reason.