To be or not to be is Hamlet's most famous soliloquy....he was wondering whether he should commit suicide in the face of overwhelming misery. He cannot bring himself to obey his father's ghost and kill the usurper to the throne, his uncle Claudius. He is trapped by agony, and undone by many things....his conscience, his sense of cowardice and failure, his disgust with his mother's sexual betrayal, and a depth of depression bordering on madness. Even though committing suicide would end his suffering,...Hamlet pauses to reason out things logically, breaking down the problem as the rational mind is used to doing.
...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.
Is dying the end, or is it akin to going to sleep? If it's like going to sleep, will it mean the end of my troubles, or will I be engulfed in nightmares? Many these dreams are worse than being alive, even when life is at its most painful. I can't sleep with anyone who has come back from the dear, so I can't resolve this problem. I'm left with doubt. And doubt is enough to make me cling to life.
There is no permanence in this life. Possessions come and go, as do other people. Somehow we cope with so much loss. How? By clinging to the notions that we are permanent, that our world is forever. When you die and finally have nothing to hold on to....you will be filled with the universe.
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