The soliloquy "To be or not to be" in HamletThe fame of a particular soliloquy of the hero of Shakespeare's Hamlet logically requires special attention be granted to the above. speech. And that is the intention of this essay. In “Superposed Plays,” Richard A. Lanham discusses the most famous of all soliloquies: The king and Polonius hold up Ophelia as bait and watch. Hamlet sees it. He may even be, as WA Bebbington has suggested, reading the "To be or not to be" speech from a book, literally using it as a stage prop to mislead the spies, convince them of his now suicidal vision. -madness. No one in their right mind would criticize poetry. But that has nothing to do with anything above. This fools Ophelia – it’s not difficult – but it shouldn’t fool us. The question is whether Hamlet will act directly or through the drama? No way. Instead, will it end up in the river? I say it this way familiarly to penetrate the serious numerosity that surrounds this passage. Hamlet anatomizes grievances forever. But does he suffer from these grievances? He indeed has a complaint against the King and one against Ophelia. Why not do something instead of contemplating suicide? (93) Marchette Chute in "The Story Told in Hamlet" describes how close the hero comes to suicide by reciting his most famous soliloquy: Hamlet enters, desperate enough at this point to think of suicide. It seemed to him that it would be such a sure way of escaping torment as to cease to exist, and he delivered the famous speech on suicide, which has never been worn out by repetition. “To be or not to be. . .” It would be easy to stop living. To die, to sleep; nothing more. And by a piece of paper......in, Harry. “An Explanation of Player Speech.” Modern critical interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rpt. from The Question of Hamlet. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959. Nevo, Ruth. “Acts III and IV: problems of text and direction”. Modern critical interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rpt. of Shakespeare's tragic form. Np: Princeton University Press, 1972. Rosenberg, Marvin. “Laertes: an impulsive but serious young aristocrat.” Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1992. Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html