The Question.

We all question ourselves at some point in our lives. And due to different situations we must decide what we want to do. But the decision is hard, and you are never really sure if you chose well. A really simple example would be to choose between two guys, a classic Hollywood movie. You have guy A and guy B each different but great at the same time and you know that if you choose one the doubt of what would have happened if you chose the other one will never leave your mind. That happens with mostly every decision we have to make and until one of the two does something weather to prove he is “the one” or does something wrong you won’t be at peace with your decision. I even risk to say that you won’t be able to decide.

Hamlet, just like us deals with a situation like this (Although his is nothing like the example mentioned above). His father was killed, his uncle became king and married his mother, and he sees a ghost and tries to prove if his uncle killed his father. Poor Hamlet, he’s desperate. Due to all of this he must decide if he kills his uncle or not. But before that, comes the famous line that to most people represents Hamlet: “to be or not to be, that is the question” (A,III S i). Because of his desperation he must decide if he wants to kill himself or not. He asks himself if it’s worth to suffer or better to fight the problem but by ending it. Either by reading the soliloquy or by watching it you can identify Hamlets emotions. In the play (book) he considered both options just like we do, but can’t decide because both are the same. One is not better or worse than the other. In David Tennant’s interpretation the camera focuses on Hamlet’s profile from the back and the scene is dark and blurry except his face. He tries to hide behind a wall and has his eyes closed showing worry and fear. I can’t be sure but when he says “thus conscience does make cowards of us all” (A.III Si) Hamlet answers his own questions. The fear of dying keeps us and in this case him from choosing one reason over the other. We prefer to suffer with something that we know than experience something new. So the question that Hamlet’s asks himself is something that we ask ourselves every day, sometimes with more important topics than other. Shakespeare did not write to die or not die. Of course this was the case for Hamlet, but the “be” opens the questions for whatever we want to fill in with.