“To be, or not to be, that is the question.” This famous line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet begins Hamlet’s most well-known soliloquy and is the cause of many debates in the literary world. For many years, most people thought the speech was about suicide. The more recently accepted view is that the speech is about whether or not Hamlet should kill his uncle. While the second theory does make some sense, certain lines in the soliloquy lead one to believe that the topic must be suicide.

Many lines in the discourse lead one to believe it is about death. For example “To die-to sleep-No more; and by a sleep to say we end the heartache…” By “end the heartache,” Shakespeare means to die. Other lines persuade one to believe that the oration is not just about death, but suicide. Shakespeare explains the first line of Hamlet’s soliloquy by asking if it is “nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrages fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them.”

Since one can only suffer within their own mind, this line makes one believe that Shakespeare asks if it is better to suffer within oneself or to end one’s troubles. In another line, Shakespeare all but says the speech concerns suicide. “For who would bear . . . the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin.” In simpler terms, who would deal with the pains of the world when he himself can make his release with a dagger. Hamlet was suffering many things in the world, and was wondering whether he should kill himself or deal with the world. This line is the most convincing argument that the soliloquy is about suicide.