To be or not to be that is the question? What did William Shakespeare mean when he said this quote?

Answer 1

It's from Hamlet.
Hamlet has just come home from school to find that his father has not died from natural causes but was in fact murdered by his father's brother. Hamlet's mother is now sharing her bed with his uncle and doesn't understand why Hamlet is upset nor does she realize that he was killed by the man she now sleeps with.
If I remember correctly this quote comes shortly before Hamlet decides to hire a troupe to act out what actually happened to his father, and in effect drop the boom on his uncle.
What he's asking in his monologue is whether it's better to deal with all the anger and anguish he's feeling because of his father's death and the events that have happened since.
Basically he's trying to decided whether it would be more nobel to commit sucidie than to follow through with his plan.

Answer 2

A lot of people consider Hamlet to be considering suicide in this speech however it can also be read as whether or not he should revenge his fathers death as he knows his uncle is guilty of the crime but wether he should do it or not is unknown to him at this point. He knows that if he goes through with it then he will be committing crimes of his own however if he does not go throuh with it he will be living in sorrow and be dead inside as he will have let his father down. You can read a lot about it on the net just search for analysis of Hamlets soliloquys.

Good luck

Answer 3

Hamlet is contemplating suicide. To be and suffer or not to be (commit suicide) and face the unknown.

Answer 4

to be or not to be theat is the question, wether tis nobeler to suffer the slings and arrows of life or to embrace the cold of death !

Answer 5

Its nice to be important but important to be nice.

Answer 6

To live or to die: what do I wanna do....?