I know most of you have heard me talk bout this, but i find it very entertaining...
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,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised 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 undiscover'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 does 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. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd. So ya here's the soliloquy that most famous of Shakespeare. Ya it took me like a good 30 minutes to paraphrase it, but wow, i can honestly ssay its truly worth it. Hamlet brings up a topic that although it is very popular, we have not been able to answer. The underlying question: Is it truly worth it to live and suffer what life brings us, or is it better to just "simply" end our lives and rid all problems? I do emphasize the word "simply" because in reality, we can simply end our life, but what hold us back from this simple task? Hamlet answers with the idea that we are all cowards. We are all cowards of the unknown. He questions that if we die, is it the kind of "dream" where nothing occurs and thats just the end, or is it a "dream" whether we possibly and unknowing set ourselves up for a even more suffering in the afterlife? This is truly the unknown question we fear. Therefore, we are cowards. He then realizes the depressing idea that although we choose to live and suffer, the question still looms over our lives--that what we work for now we nonetheless end with death. It is then that we must face our fear and find out, still however, the question remains unknown.
So ya, id like to know your opinion bout Shakespeare's idea, what "dream" do you believe happens after death? The "dream" of nothingness or the "dream" of unknown suffering to come.
--lexis
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