Hamlet's existential dilemma

A light-hearted map of Hamlet's existential dilemma (Act III, Scene I), to commemorate the 444th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth on 23 April 1564.



Hamlet, Act III, Scene I

"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, 
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, 
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay, 
The insolence of office, and the spurns 
That patient merit of th'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 undiscovered 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 pitch and moment 
With this regard their currents turn away, 
And lose the name of action."

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Hamlet's existential dilemma
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