Hamlet puts forth his thesis statement at the beginning.

‘To be or not to be’ [to continue to exist or not]

i) How does he elaborate his proposition in lines 3-6?

ii) Which lines bring out Hamlet's pessimism?

iii) What dream does Hamlet refer to in lines 10 and 11?

(i) Hamlet in his soliloquy ‘To be or not to be’ ponders over what is the best solution for him to ease his mind. In lines 3-6, he says

“……….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 asleep to say we end……..”

It can be seen that Hamlet speculates whether he should keep on living even though he feels endless pain due to betrayals, insults and heartache or should he face he stand against his sufferings and put an end to it by dying. He compares his pain to the sea; he compares death to a sleep which never ends and he sees it as a weapon against the troubles of his life.

(ii) The following lines bring out the pessimism in Hamlet:

“…. But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover’d country from whose bourn

No traveler returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have”

In the beginning of the soliloquy, Hamlet proposes that embracing death is the best solution to end all his sorrow and pain. This shows a little of his pessimism but this pessimistic approach is more aggravated when in the above lines he speculates what may happen after death. He only imagines that his sufferings will not end even after dying rather if he commits suicide there will be something more worse after death.

(iii) Lines 10 and 11 are as follows:

“ To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come”

In the previous lines, Hamlet echoes his thoughts that he believe dying is the best possible cure for all troubles and humiliations. He refers to death as ‘sleep’. In the given lines, Hamlet says death is like a sleep and on sleeping what arrives are dreams. But death is not like the normal sleep and there’s the catch because one cannot predict what type of dreams may occur when one falls prey to death.