Hamlet

soliloquy the famous "To be or not to be" speech

what does it mean

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It is a deliberation of suicide. Think of "to be" meaning to live, to exist. Should Hamlet kill himself or not? He has no kind things to say about the world in the soliloquy. He refers to the world as being made of the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," and who would want to take that? But he ultimately cannot commit to suicide because of the fear of uncertainty of "what dreams may come" if he dies. So he takes "pause" and suffers his life because he's too frightened to risk a crummier afterlife.