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Read the following extract from “Hamlet”:
The story so far: Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark and he has been troubled since his father died suddenly in tragic circumstances. His uncle Claudius succeeded to the throne and also married his mother within two months of his father’s death, which Hamlet considers little short of scandalous. The ghost of the dead King appears to Hamlet and tells of his murder at Claudius’ hands. Hamlet wants to take revenge, but he is racked by doubts and begins to behave very strangely. Some of the courtiers believe him mad; others believe him to be in love with beautiful Ophelia.
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 despis’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 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 sickled o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.

slings: kind of weapon                         spurns: insults
outrageous: shocking                     th’unworthy: undeserving
consummation: satisfaction, end                     quietus: death
devoutly: with religious feeling, sincerely                 bodkin: stiletto
perchance: perhaps                             fardels: burdens
rub: problem                            grunt: make a noise of suffering
shuffled off: removed                    weary: tiring and dissatisfying
mortal coil: skin                             dread: fear
make calamity of so long life: makes man live disastrously long     
bourn: frontiers                                 will: volition
scorns: bad treatment                             hue: colour    
contumely: insults                         sicklied o’er: made ill 
pangs: pains                                 pitch: intensity
cast: shadow                                 awry: off course
moment: importance                             

Post – reading activities:
- What is the main problem that Hamlet poses himself in the first line? What is the alternative?
- What advantages does death bring? 
- What difficulty does Hamlet, however, see after death? 
- Paraphrase in your own words the catalogue of life’s sufferings. Are these problems still topical nowadays?
- Why do people tolerate this unpleasantness of earthly life?
- What is Hamlet’s conclusion about the reason why people do not commit suicide when faced with difficulties in their life?
- Paraphrase Hamlet’s view of life and death. Does this still make sense to a modern reader like yourself?