Why is the Hamlet's soliloquy, "to be or not to be, that is the question" so famous?

Answer 1

It asks the most basic existential question, the one that causes us all to struggle. What's the point of life? Is it nobler to exist and struggle mightily, or should I just give up?

I could opine on this for pages, but that's the simplest answer.

Answer 2

Another reason is that it comes out of left field in the play, and, as a result, comes across as sort of a self-contained meditation. It's easy for people who don't necessarily know the PLAY to remember this particular speech.

Unlike most Shakespearean soliloquies, it really isn't PLOT driven. We've heard -- from Ophelia, for example, in her scene with Polonius -- that Hamlet has been behaving oddly, but his contemplation of suicide is something for which the play really hasn't prepared us.

Answer 3

Shakespeare's play focused on the mind of a man who's profoundly distraught and who is asking himself whether life is worth living. This is a question that all people ask themselves. In trying to make sense of life, this is the eternal question, in a manner of speaking. Shakespeare touched upon the center of mans being with this particular soliloquy, and it is remembered, even when nothing else of the play is. Hamlets pathos touches us all.

Answer 4

William Shakespear's Hamlet was a very emotionally moving play. It was great in his day, and even in present times, the play is great!
Hamlet is asking,"Do I continue to live, or do I kill myself?". Hamlet's soul is tortured.
That is why that line is so famous.