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Shakespeare's Hamlet Speech To Be Or Not To Be

1301 Words6 Pages

Question 2: Shakespeare's Hamlet has a famous speech called "To be or not to be". Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, and the central character of the play delivered this speech. Hamlet suspected his uncle, Claudius for the death of his father. However, the ghost of his father confirmed that his brother (Claudius) is the man behind his murder. Hamlet promises his father's ghost that he would murder his brother and forgets about it. He pretends to be a mad person to gather more information against his uncle. Claudius and Polonius, Claudius advisor, believe Hamlet to be crazy because Ophelia, Polonius daughter rejected him. “To be, or not …. name of action” (3.1.57-90) is thirty-three lines speech given by Hamlet. In the speech, Hamlet asks to live …show more content…

Shakespeare puts us in a dilemma saying whether to live or not. That is the only imagery I could find in the whole speech. Hamlet delivers this speech when Polonius sends Ophelia to talk to Hamlet because he convinces king and queen that Ophelia rejecting his love is the reason behind Hamlet acting like a mad person. Hamlet delivers this speech to act like he is a crazy person to convince people that he is insane such that he can focus on revenge (killing Claudius). The speech is more than two lines because it is more efficient in showing out his emotions …show more content…

Ophelia stops loving Hamlet when her brother and father told her. Also, the news that Hamlet turned into a mad person weakened her more. Her father's death makes her more insane. Ophelia kills herself because she could not take the death of her father being killed by her love. And Hamlet asked her to become a nun which weakened her and eventually made her kill herself. Also, Ophelia's brother Laertes is entirely weakened by his father's death and his sister's suicide; he decides to kill Hamlet. In this case, we see that Ophelia was too weak to go with what life offered her so he killed

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