My Featured PoemTo Be Or Not To Be

- A soliloquy from William Shakespeare's 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?

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 wished.

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,

The pangs of disprized love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of the 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 undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And make us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And Is sicklied o'er

With the pale cast of thought

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn away,

And lose the name of action.

Film Version

Poetry Reading Version

I. About the Poem

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet , is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlet's father, King Hamlet. Claudius had murdered his own brother and seized the throne, also marrying his deceased brother's widow. Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play, and is ranked among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others".The play likely was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime,and still ranks among his most performed, topping the performance list of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessors in Stratford-upon-Avon since 1879. It has inspired many other writers – from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and Iris Murdoch – and has been described as "the world's most filmed story after Cinderella".The story of Shakespeare's Hamlet was derived from the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum, as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. Shakespeare may also have drawn on an earlier (hypothetical) Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet, though some scholars believe he himself wrote the Ur-Hamlet, later revising it to create the version of Hamlet we now have. He almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor, Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time. In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by numerous highly acclaimed actors in each successive century.
Three different early versions of the play are extant: the First Quarto (Q1, 1603); the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604); and the First Folio (F1, 1623). Each version includes lines and entire scenes missing from the others. The play's structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny. One such example is the centuries-old debate about Hamlet's hesitation to kill his uncle, which some see as merely a plot device to prolong the action, but which others argue is a dramatisation of the complex philosophical and ethical issues that surround cold-blooded murder, calculated revenge, and thwarted desire. More recently, psychoanalytic critics have examined Hamlet's unconscious desires, while feminist critics have re-evaluated and attempted to rehabilitate the often maligned characters of Ophelia and Gertrude.

Works Cited （参考文献）

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet

II. About the Author

 William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616)was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon".His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, which has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, and religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, and these are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Works Cited （参考文献）

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

IV. My Reaction

A. Reaction Point - theme

• 定義　the central idea of a work of literature
• 例　　The theme of Hamlet is "To be, or not to be".
• 略　　ハムレットの主題はTo be, or not to beである。

B. Reaction Point - character

• 定義　A fictional personality created by an author
• 例　　Hamlet is the main character's name.
• 略　　ハムレットは主人公の名前だ。

C. Reaction Point - euphemism

• 定義 an indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant
• 例 To be, or not to be use euphemism.
• 略　　To be, or not to beは婉曲法を使っている。

D. My General Opinion
I knew Hamlet and To be, or not to be in English literature class. I like this poem because I think that the story is difficult but very interesting.