Most people know OF this quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But how many actually know ABOUT it?
It is the fundamental existential question that we all have to face.
Is being, despite its limitations and sufferings, an inherently worthwhile thing to treasure and work together towards the betterment of?
Or is it an ethically and logically untenable thing that needs to be sabotage and destroyed? Starting with my own being?
This is your primary point of being and meaning. You have made this decision and your life is preceding within its parameters.
So which have you chosen: and how is that unfolding for you? Does your most fundamental map of meaning align with the archetypical Creator or the archetypical Destroyer?
A difficult question, I know. But in reality we have all already made this choice and are acting it out. And the key difficulty lies in recognizing and owning the choice we have made.
To be or not to be.
(My apologies for moving you from knowing OF this quote to knowing ABOUT this quote!)
© 2026 – SoulSequel
7 responses to ““To be or not to be; that is the question””
I disagree. Hope, the Hope is from immortal hands. And it withstands Satan (the Destroyer).
Those without the Spirit do not really have hope immortal.
Starting a thread on this, though, been wanting to.
Here is the entire soliloquy. To end with the opening phrase leaves too much out of what is trying to be considered.
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 heartache, 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,
Th’ 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 th’ 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 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 enterprise of great pitch 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 remembered.
As I read this now; it makes me wonder about why we bother to drill deep to understand why, when perhaps all that will do is contribute to the dreams when we die that we might have to live with through infinity. Maybe better to be a happy ignoramus than a sad guru??
@spitfire3dc
It may be a case of “to each their own”. Perhaps not. I will have to do some more thinking on that!
I just know there is in many, in Shakespeare’s words, “. . . lives of quiet desperation”.
Mostly associated with the existential struggle.
Is “sad” the same as “sober”? Is “happy” the same as “joyful”? Is the purpose of this life just to get by, splashing about on the surface? Or what if it is here for the very purpose of diving deep?
The struggling hero archetypes, enduring the slings and arrows, descending into the very belly of the dragon of chaos to be reborn, renewed . . . and this often to shared benefit . . . permeate multiple cultures that our best knowledge shows had no meaningful contact. This seems to mean something.
Will deep thought in this coil prove a burden in any realm that might come next? Or wings?
I know not.
But I do know that those few who have dared to dive deep, seem to have left more betterment and advancement behind than a whole gaggle of happy ignoramuses!
@griz
“The struggling hero archetypes, enduring the slings and arrows, descending into the very belly of the dragon of chaos to be reborn, renewed”
Something to consider. Shakey uses the words “outrageous fortune”, not outrageous misfortune. That doesn’t mean that your comment associated with descent is inaccurate, but it does put an interesting spin on things.
To be, to me, is to exist, period. To not be, is to not exist. That’s the foundation.
How we “be”, may be considered in the context of what we are, prior to the ultimate “stop”. We have choices to make. Do we accept the suffering that may be our natural state, or do we take “arms” against them? The “arms” could be a metaphor for an attitude associated with just dealing with the constant challenges that Life offers.
To be takes an effort to be all we can be. Otherwise, if we just go through the motions; maybe we are not being.
@spitfire3dc
He was a clever one with words. The natural outlook on slings and arrows imminently arriving upon your local can have you like Wile E Coyote hunkering under a teeny cute umbrella labeled “Misfortune!”. But a wise twist of perspective can indeed see the “fortune” pending upon having successfully endured them. Like an awesome samurai plucking an arrow out of mid-flight . . . or Wolverine pulling it out, healing up on-the-spot, and saying “You talking to me bub??!!”.
I wonder how many people are “not existing” . . . but still ambling around upright? Perhaps a lot. It reminds me of a humorous memo threatening to chastise employees who are dead but fail to fall down.
In your words I see the concept of “finding meaning sufficient to keep the chaos at bay”. It’s something that was prominent in the Peterson lecture I listened to yesterday.
Or as “Shaky” said, to even find “outrageous fortune” when chaos (suffering, trial) tries to come a-visitin’.
Profoundly interesting stuff, imho!
To be, as I have live a thousand life times, and I have mined the depths of reason as to why I remain after all of these ages…
Or not to be, in these long years too numerous to fathom lest ye walk this same path. That those I’ve known and loved and lost, with deep sorrow and often regret for their passing, knowing that for them life was fleeting and so temporary. Anguish be ever my shadow, it follows wherever my foot steps take me.
@immortal_pirate
Big anguish takes big meaning to temper it into something worthwhile.
And a seemingly-irrational problem (being) could call for a seemingly-irrational solution (God) to temper it into something worthwhile.
With the only other option as “un-being”.