A tragedy in which Prince Hamlet of Denmark, visited by his dead father's ghost with an accusation of murder against his uncle Claudius, delays and deliberates his way toward revenge while the Danish court around him unravels. Its extended soliloquies, addressed as much to the audience as to any other character, gave the English stage a new depth of interior psychological representation, and lines from the play, including its most famous, 'To be, or not to be,' entered common English usage more thoroughly than perhaps any other single dramatic text.
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Original Language Composed, From (Year) Hamlet
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FAQs
Where in the play does the speech beginning To be or not to be come?
In the third act. Hamlet speaks it as he enters while the King and Polonius withdraw.
The speech comes in the third act of Hamlet, in a room in the castle. Polonius has arranged for Ophelia to be where Hamlet will find her, and he tells the King he hears Hamlet coming and that they should withdraw. Hamlet then enters and begins to speak, opening with the line To be, or not to be, that is the question.
Why does Hamlet not kill Claudius when he finds him at prayer?
From the text of the play as published by Project Gutenberg, Act 3, Scene 3, Hamlet says: Now might I do it pat, now he is praying. And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I reveng’d. That would be scann’d: A villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. He took my father grossly, full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven? But in our circumstance and course of thought, ’Tis heavy with him. And am I then reveng’d, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season’d for his passage? No.
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Shakespeare wrote the play predominantly in blank verse, the form's own defining English dramatic use.
Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Authored By
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
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In Genre
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
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Original Language
Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannicatier 1
Sources
1. Open Library: Hamlet
2. The Norton Anthology of World Literature
W. W. Norton & Company
3. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Hamlet (Wikipedia)
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is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601.
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Princeton University PressAssociated With: Blank Verse
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