The fact of the matter is that Hamlet is completely depressed, but suicide is not the way to solve anything. Hamlet states, "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;" Meaning his conscience is almost literally "eating him alive" making him think things that are irrational, due to the series of unfortunate events he has recently been through. Suicide is not the answer though; it never is. He reflects upon his religious ideas and knows that it is a sin to act upon these thoughts, but life is so rough he cannot decide his own fate. Hamlet debates back and forth in his own mind, pondering life and death, depression and revenge, and he cannot come to a certain verdict. "To grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death," He is uncertain of what follows death, and wonders if his struggles are worth the pain. Retiring to the unknown scares Hamlet and I feel his overall thoughts will be altered due to the immense uncertainty of what would be in store for him if he did in fact commit the "dreadful" act.
With my own regards to life and it's importance (no matter how hard it may be sometimes) I feel that Hamlet should not commit suicide. The act of committing suicide is more cowardly than not avenging his father's death at all. He is less of a man by killing himself, then he would be if he just sat around for the rest of his life crying. The debate he has with himself is understandable because of his depression, but his decision in the end will prove how courageous of a Prince he really is. It will prove his "nobility" in the eyes of his people, and over all it will prove to himself that he is a stronger man than he originally thought he could be.
Overall the soliloquy is an in depth analyzation of Hamlet's depression and within the speech he is trying to decide if his life is worth living anymore. "To exist, or to not exist," is the literal definition of the first line of spoken by Hamlet revealing his struggles and thoughts. Is killing himself going to fix everything? Or is the afterlife to unknown to be risked? Hamlet ponders upon these ideas over and over in his head, only to still come to uncertain conclusion, no closer to a real conclusion than he had when he started. Suicide is not the answer by any means. Courage is found in how a person reacts to certain situations at certain times, and while Hamlet does questions his existence, it also seems to me that he will reveal his true persona and make the right decision in the end. That is Life.
Hamlet's Soliloquy:
"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 heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. 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,
The 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 the 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 undiscover'd 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 enterprises of great pith 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 remember'd."
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