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"To be, or not to be" is a speech given by Prince Hamlet in the so-called "nunnery scene" of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1). The speech is named for the opening phrase, itself among the most widely known and quoted lines in modern English literature, and has been referenced in many works of theatre, literature and music.
Richard immediately establishes a connection with the audience with his opening monologue. In the soliloquy he admits his amorality to the audience but at the same time treats them as if they were co-conspirators in his plotting; one may well be enamored of his rhetoric [13] while being appalled by his actions. Richard shows off his wit in Act ...
Academic Laurie Osborne identifies the direct influence of Hamlet in numerous modern narratives, and divides them into four main categories: fictional accounts of the play's composition, simplifications of the story for young readers, stories expanding the role of one or more characters, and narratives featuring performances of the play.
William Shakespeare's play Hamlet has contributed many phrases to common English, from the famous "To be, or not to be" to a few less known, but still in everyday English. Some also occur elsewhere (e.g. in the Bible) or are proverbial. All quotations are second quarto except as noted:
Shakespeare's play summarises events around the year 1485, although the actual historical events of the play proceeded over a much longer period. In Cibber's version the years 1471–1485, during which Richard gained power and was able to rise to the throne of England, are presented to the audience in five acts.
Oxford University Press first published a complete works of Shakespeare in 1891. Entitled The Complete Works, it was a single-volume modern-spelling edition edited by William James Craig. [1] [2] This 1891 text is not directly related to the series known as the Oxford Shakespeare today, which is freshly re-edited.
During the Victorian era, Quillian argues, there was an "enormous and positive hold that Hamlet exerted on the literary imagination." [ 2 ] This was followed by a "shift in perception" [ 3 ] during the period of Modernism (c. 1911–1922) when T. S. Eliot and James Joyce condemned the play as a "failure."
Characterising the play as a whole by quoting the author's own words in it—"Shakespear alone could describe the effect of his own poetry."—he reflects that the play's poetry comes " 'o'er the ear like the sweet south/That breathes upon a bank of violets,/Stealing and giving odour. ' " [185]