Hamlet begins by questioning the merits of living at all against those of death
"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"
Indeed he goes as far as to suggest that the only reason everyone doesn’t commit suicide is because of the uncertainties after death
But is eventually frustrated by the uncertainty of death. He feels rendered unable to make a balanced decision on the merits of existence because he feels he has no idea what it is like to be dead. He seems almost angered at this because he has, for some time, been wishing himself in a different situation and death could have been a way out. As a result of this frustration he claims that good plans are often not enacted because of fear that they might result in death
"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 pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action."
The importance of this soliloquy is perhaps best considered within the context of the actualities of the play and how it relates to them. Giving the above, what comment might be made on what the soliloquy can tell us about Hamlet and his mental state?
Part of the reason Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” speech is so well known is that it addresses questions of existence that remain to this day. The thoughts that Hamlet explores here are relevant to his situation. Both of these factors grant him some sympathy and establish uncertainty as a theme. The speech is, nonetheless, riddled with contradictions native to such an approach as Hamlet’s. In his soliloquy I ii 131 he wishes to be finished and resolved into a dew he also complains
“Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter”
And yet his main contention in III i 56-90 is the uncertainty after death. Further, line 79 (“from whose bourn/ No traveller returns”) is in direct contradiction to Hamlet’s assertion that he had in fact seen his father’s ghost. Only a scene before Hamlet says
II ii 594 “The spirit I have seen
May be a devil, and the devil hath a power
T’assume a pleasing shape, yea, and perhaps,
Out of my my weakness and my melancholy
As he is very potent with such spirits
Abuses me to damn me.”
After himself asserting that the ghost was his fathering act I. The true difference between I ii and III i is that Hamlet’s situation is different. In I he was distressed by his father’s death and angered over his mothers hasty marriage. In III he is guilt stricken for not avenging his father’s murder. Hamlet views the world through his current situation and what might be taken from the uncertainties of it.
This seems entirely the wrong way around, surely if one was to make sense of the unknown one aught to start with what one knows and explain it from there. Hamlet is not so scientific but is instead more human. The audience can sympathise because they too have found themselves lost for answers and been forced to rethink deeply held beliefs.
The constant revaluation of his views is what gives birth to his procrastination. It is on the conclusions of his ponderings that he plans to act but real action is rendered impossible by the fact that how he feels and what he believes are inestimably linked. This is most obvious when, after the play he runs to his mother’s chamber and kills Polonius, hoping he is the king. Before the play he had suspected that the ghost was a devil.
Perhaps this is the most important soliloquy in hinting at Hamlet’s madness. For further study of the issues it raises see this essay on madness .