Introduction: this is the most famous soliloquy (=a long speech where a character talks to himself/herself or voices his/her thoughts aloud for the benefit of the audience) from Hamlet, starting with what is probably the most famous line from Shakespeare's entire repertoire: "To be, or not to be, that is the question".
In this soliloquy, Hamlet contemplates the point of his existence: should he take action and fight against his fate, or give up, accept defeat and end it all.
soliloquy |
modern translation |
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 heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to [...] |
The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and for all? Dying, sleeping—that’s all dying is—a sleep that ends all the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives us |
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, [...] 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 traveler returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? [...] |
After all, who would put up with all life’s humiliations— Who would choose to grunt and sweat through an exhausting life, unless they were afraid of something dreadful after death, the undiscovered country from which no visitor returns, which we wonder about without getting any answers from and which makes us stick to the evils we know rather than rush off to seek the ones we don’t? |
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. |
Fear of death makes us all cowards, and our natural boldness becomes weak with too much thinking. Actions that should be carried out at once get misdirected, and stop being actions at all. |
Introduction: Cassio has fallen out of favour with Othello, and asks Iago for advice. Iago tells him to go to Desdemona and ask her to speak to Othello on his behalf. He plans to tell Othello that Desdemona is secretly in love with Cassio, to make him jealous when she brings him up.
IAGO
And what’s he then that says I play the villain? When this advice is free I give and honest, Probal to thinking and indeed the course To win the Moor again? […] His soul is so enfettered to her love, That she may make, unmake, do what she list, Even as her appetite shall play the god With his weak function. How am I then a villain To counsel Cassio to this parallel course, Directly to his good? Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on They do suggest at first with heavenly shows As I do now. For whiles this honest fool Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear: That she repeals him for her body’s lust. And by how much she strives to do him good She shall undo her credit with the Moor. So will I turn her virtue into pitch And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all. |
IAGO
Who can say I’m evil when my advice is so good? That’s really the best way to win the Moor back again[…] He’s so enslaved by love that she can make him do whatever she wants. How am I evil to advise Cassio to do exactly what’ll do him good? That’s the kind of argument you’d expect from Satan! When devils are about to commit their biggest sins they put on their most heavenly faces, just like I’m doing now. And while this fool is begging Desdemona to help him, and while she’s pleading his case to the Moor, I’ll poison the Moor’s ear against her, hinting that she’s taking Cassio’s side because of her lust for him. The more she tries to help Cassio, the more she’ll shake Othello’s confidence in her. And that’s how I’ll turn her good intentions into a big trap to snag them all. |