The dual argument of Hamlet’s soliloquy

REVENGE

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 consumation
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,
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 these 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.		 To live or to die – these are the proposed outcomes of rejecting a hazardous action, or of embracing it.

 

If death must be the outcome, then it can be reconciled to as the soul’s continuation in a state of rest identical to sleep.

But sleep is not always rest – free of the body, the soul is still exposed to the disturbances of dreams.

 

 

This is the explanation for anyone’s decision to endure life rather than be free of it – what the soul undergoes after the body’s death is unknown, but at least we can reckon our mortal sufferings.

 

 

 

This great inconvenience makes avoidance of death – and hence of any hazardous action – the logical choice.

THE ANTIC DISPOSITION

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 consumation
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,
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 these 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.		 To have eternal being or to have none – these are the outcomes of continuing to face life’s torments or of easing them by the antic disposition.

 

If life’s torments continue to be endured, they will eventually end in death, and this can be welcomed as a state of rest identical to sleep.

But sleep is not always rest – free of the body, the soul is still exposed to the disturbances of dreams, and these may be as bad or worse than the terrors of mortal life.

 

This is the explanation for anyone’s decision to endure life rather than be free of it – what the soul undergoes after the body’s death is unknown, but at least we can reckon our mortal sufferings.

 

This great inconvenience makes persistence in a course that dulls the soul and ultimately annihilates it the preferred option – but as a result revenge will continue to be impossible.