To Be or Not to Be: Rhetorical Analysis & Meaning

The “To be or not to Be” speech by Hamlet in Act 3, Scene 1 in the play Hamlet is one of the most famous, if not the most famous, soliloquies in literature. Everyone has heard it before or at least a reference to it, and many have even made a joke using it. At first glance, the monologue appears to be about a man contemplating suicide; however, is that really the case?

A further look at the play suggests it is much more than that. It is a contemplation on action versus inaction. Now, that does not mean that it doesn’t suggest suicidal ideation, which Hamlet engages in at the very beginning of the play. However, we should consider that the soliloquy is spoken after Hamlet discovers that his father has been killed by King Claudius and demands justice.

Before the realization, Hamlet was already contemplating suicide. With the realization, Hamlet appears to be mixing his former suicidal ideation with a contemplation on whether or not to take action to avenge his father. In this article, I provide a rhetorical analysis of the play and discuss how it relates to the character of Hamlet.

A depiction of the Nunnery Scene by Edward H. Bell, where the speech takes place.

The "to be or not to be" soliloquy in full, its context, and its meaning

The speech occurs in Act 3, Scene 1 of the play and is also known as the Nunnery Scene. This is because it is the scene where Hamlet rejects Ophelia, after his soliloquy, by telling her repeatedly, “Get thee to a nunnery” — a word which is likely a euphemism for a house of prostitution. During the scene, Hamlet is being spied upon by King Claudius and his minister Polonius, as he is seen as a threat to his power by King Claudius, while Ophelia is in the room as he speaks. 

Here is the speech in full:

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. To die—to sleep,

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause—there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action.

The soliloquy is complicated and apparently about suicide if we read it at the surface level. For example, “To be or not to be” reads obviously as a question of whether to live or not; or is it? A closer reading reveals that the phrase is juxtaposing action versus inaction.

In that regard, taking action is being, whereas being inactive is death. The speech is as complicated as Hamlet seems to equate taking action to avenge his father's death with his own dying. In short, challenging Claudius means facing certain death. There is even more evidence against the idea that Hamlet is talking about suicide.

For example, “to take arms against a sea of troubles / And by opposing end them” would be a strange phrase to use to describe self-destruction. Instead, Hamlet is describing the effort that is necessary to bring Claudius to justice. This is further emphasised at the end of the soliloquy when he references “enterprises of great pith and moment.” Again, this could not possibly be a reference to suicide. 

To bring Claudius to justice would mean proving that the king committed the murder, forging political alliances inside and outside the royal court to depose him, and forming military alliances to take up arms against Claudius if need be. Hamlet is not prepared for any of these “enterprises of great pith and moment,” except for the first — proving at least to himself that Claudius is guilty, which he accomplishes during the Mousetrap Scene in Act 3, Scene 2. 

The fact that Hamlet makes references to injustices quite similar to the crimes of Claudius also supports this argument. For example, he asks who would bear the “oppressor’s wrong,” “the law’s delay,” and the “insolence of office.” All these point to the situation with Claudius, who has murdered his own brother and has gotten away with it. 

Rhetorical and literary devices in the soliloquy

The monologue is full of rhetorical devices. In particular, juxtaposition, erotema, anastrophe, and metaphpr stand out. Juxtaposition is the main device used in the speech. In fact, the entire passage is based on juxtaposing action versus inaction. The passage also includes several impressive metaphors. For example, death is described as “The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn /No traveller returns.” The table below provides a full list of the several literary and rhetorical devices in Hamlet’s famous monologue.

Rhetorical Device	Definition	Example From the Speech
Anaphora	Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences	To die—to sleep, No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream—ay To die—to sleep
Anadiplosis	Repetition of the ending at the beginning	To die, to sleep; / To sleep, perchance to dream
Isocolon	Words, phrases, or sentences arranged in parallel structure	For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,
Anastrophe	Inversion of words	Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin?
Metanoia	Correcting oneself	To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub.  For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
Erotema	Rhetorical questions	For who would bear the whips and scorns of time  . . .  When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? To be, or not to be
Metaphor	A figure of speech in which an idea is represented by something else without using “like” or “as”	When we have shuffled off this mortal coil And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
Imagery	Vivid sensory-based descriptions	And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought
Juxtaposition	Placing two things side by side to highlight their differences	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.

What does the speech tell us about Hamlet’s character?

Many have taken Hamlet’s soliloquy to be an expression of suicidal ideation. It is easy to understand why. The opening line of the speech can be read as that. More than that, at the beginning of the play, Hamlet has already engaged in a soliloquy where he explicitly states that he is thinking of committing suicide: 

O that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d

His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on’t! O fie! ’tis an unweeded garden,

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely. (Act 1, Scene 2)

Hamlet refrains from killing himself only because it is against his Christian faith. This is what he means when he laments if only the “Everlasting had not fix’d / His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter," which means God's worst punishment is reserved for those who commit suicide. We can say based on that speech alone that Hamlet suffers from depression. He is disappointed and sad as a result of his father's death. The young prince, at the time of the speech, does not know yet that King Claudius is responsible for his father’s death. 

Nevertheless, he is suspicious of the fact that his mother has quickly moved on and married his father's brother, King Claudius. These suspicions are confirmed when the ghost of his father, King Hamlet, visits him and informs him that he was poisoned by King Claudius, who was engaged in an incestuous affair with Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. 

The confusion in the “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy can be explained by the depression and suicidal ideation that it is established early on that Hamlet suffers from. This depression means that he sees the world as a rotten place from which he can extract no joy — a place which is “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.”  We should also take note of the imagery and motifs associated with rot, death, and sickness in Hamlet's speech in Act 1, Scene 2.

The description of the world as  “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable" already suggests a mild state of rot, as it brings to mind wine or beer left out uncovered in the open for too long. This imagery is further deepened when Hamlet goes on to describe the world as "an unweeded garden," where "things rank and gross in nature possess it." The word "rank" here means stinking from rot. We see a continuation of this idea and imagery of rot or something going bad in the Nunnery Scene; however, it takes the form of human sickness and illness when Hamlet says:

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

In the Nunnery Scene, Hamlet has already learned that his father was murdered by King Claudius. His speech, although not about suicide, is colored by it. Hamlet is contemplating the various courses of political and military action that can be taken to hold King Claudius to account, or whether or not to take any political action at all. We have to remember that Hamlet is a Medieval prince, not a character in a modern detective whodunit novel. In this type of world, accusing a king of murder would be the equivalent of declaring war or open rebellion.

So Hamlet is here pondering the consequences of his various potential courses of action. In that regard, as mentioned earlier, “to be” can be seen as a personification of taking the necessary political action, whereas “not to be” alternatively can be seen as allowing King Claudius to get away with murder and not taking action. In the speech, he asks:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

 . . .     the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin?

Bodkin is an archaic word for sword. Quietus is another archaic word that variously means death, something that has a soothing effect, and more importantly, according to the etymological dictionary, "release or discharge from debt, a final clearing of accounts." These two archaic words are at the heart of the suicide interpretation of the speech. It sounds as if Hamlet is talking about taking a sword and ending his life in the same manner that a disgraced Samurai would commit seppuku.

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But again, as mentioned earlier, it is hard to square this interpretation with ideas like taking “arms against a sea of troubles.” Instead, the imagery of taking up a sword or a "bare bodkin" can be seen as a shorthand or metonym for taking political and military action of the sort that is required to hold King Claudius accountable. Such action means open rebellion and rallying armies against King Claudius. In such a light, the word "quietus" may mean a final clearing of accounts, where King Claudius is finally brought to justice or held to account for his crimes. The mixing of these metaphors or symbols for political and military action with suicide is deliberate.

Shakespeare seeks to show us that Hamlet still suffers from the suicidal ideation that he expressed earlier in the play. Even when he contemplates taking effective political and military action, Hamlet can’t help but morbidly phrase it as choosing death. It’s as if he believes that the political effort required to depose Claudius is so great and so unlikely to succeed that it would be the equivalent of suicide — suicide by rebellion, as it were.

It should be noted that not once in the play does Hamlet even articulate a practical course of action to bring King Claudius to justice, which points to just how overwhelming and impossible a task or endeavour this was for the reluctant prince. The impossibility of his political dilemma weighs upon him and affects his mind. In short, we can say that Hamlet’s logic and language have been affected or even infected by his current state of despondency and hopelessness. This is in line with Hamlet's motifs and symbols of rot and infection that feature in the play.

More importantly, Hamlet equating or mixing political action against King Claudius with death or suicide means that he is hesitant to act and even scared. It doesn't mean that he is a coward. It simply means that Hamlet is intelligent enough to recognize the danger of his precarious political position and fears that he does not have the disposition to carry out all the steps and to fulfill all the functions necessary to set things right. After all, Hamlet is a scholar and a solitary thinker, whereas the present situation demands him to be a public figure or prince in the truest sense of the word — that is, an effective politician, statesman, and soldier.

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2026, February 15). To Be or Not to Be: Rhetorical Analysis & Meaning.  EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/to-be-or-not-to-be-meaning