Tis the question of the young mind of the troubled Prince of Denmark.
Is such a world of trouble, pain, and sorrow worth living in? Hamlet is a play for young adults. What is the 'rub' which causes us to cling to the 'saneness' of staying attached to this world, and not to the 'insaneness' of removing one's self from it? Listen as young Hamlet verbally contemplates whether he, himself wants to live or die.
- Hamlet -
To be, or not to be - that is the question:
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 heartache, 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
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
And thus the native hue of resolution Be all my sins rememb'red.
Good my lord, - Hamlet - I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
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- Answer - To be, no question to worry mind about it:
Whether intended or not, Shakespeare has fallen into the timeless
justification for religion. Of all the questions of despair, here is
the one of primary care, the justification, intent and purpose of the
life of man above and beyond one's own selfish inward grasp at
understanding. There is no 'sleep of death' for the spirit of man is eternally living. If there be rest, it but from the cares of the flesh for a moments time, as the spirit's life and consciencousness continues on forever. And what is lost is that wealth of experience intented for man to have in mortal ' life of the temporal being apart from the immediate presence and direct direct influence of such a being over the agency of man. The man's right of choice, to test is he will desire of himself to choose the right. Not to be free do any and every evil think which the flesh does crave or may become enslaved to, but to learn that the choice of light and truth, that is good over evil is the only existence therein whereby man may truly be free, that is freedom from the carnal and evil realm and to live in the moral and strait ways which the celestial heaven of the divine hold prossible for a man to rise to. And there to become one in and with God in that ultimate bliss of true life of living in the caring service of love one with and unto another for the good and welfare of all. Indeed, what drudgery and despair the unbelieving man had taken upon himself, for there in he is left unto himself and the carnal creature of the natural man. And there to be pulled down into the inward self of such a question as self murder and destruction, having left the worthy heights of the highest living for the false presumption that he may choose without penalty or consequence of his action upon his own eternal being. And indeed without the Lord's redeeming grace of repentance and forgiveness given by God's Plan of Happiness for man, then that man is left with the curse that for sure 'all his sins will be remembered.' - Another - Oh, but for the 'distrations of others' is the man lost unto himself who finds his mind of his own setting, that there is nothing higher than the quantum chaos which he inflicts upon himself as the case when itself is the very argument against it in its mathematical improbability of being so for 'nil' is the answer to it. |
Further, amid the many questions and themes addressed by Hamlet, I'd suggest that Hamlet and Ophelia is the thinking man's Romeo and Juliet. Review through Hamlet the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet. Has there ever been such a story of unfulfilled love as that of loving at arms length as is Hamlet's and Ophelia's?