ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -"To be, or not to be” is the opening phrase of a speech given by Prince Hamlet in the so-called “nunnery scene” of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1. In the speech, Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, weighing the pain and unfairness of life against the alternative, which might be worse.

Detailed explanation-2: -To be or not to be Throughout this soliloquy, which happens at the start of Act 3 Scene 1, he thinks about whether he should face life’s hardships head on or end them by dying. Hamlet is alone on stage as he asks these questions about his purpose and life.

Detailed explanation-3: -This quote from the play Hamlet, “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?” The idea of whether is it better to live or to die.

Detailed explanation-4: -2. Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 1 (1603): “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.

Detailed explanation-5: -“To thine own self be true.” “Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t.” “Brevity is the soul of wit.” “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”