To Blank or Not to Blank Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The 'to be or not to be' speech from William Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet' is a soliloquy spoken by the character Hamlet during Act 3 Scene 1. The speech gives the audience insight into Hamlet's thoughts and his contemplation of death and thoughts of suicide, with the whole question of whether 'to be or not to be' relating to whether to live or not. While the opening line has become one of the most famous lines in literature, other lines from the speech have also become phrases used in the English language. These include to 'shuffle off this mortal coil' meaning to die and 'there's the rub' which has become an expression used when there is a problem which is difficult if not impossible to overcome.

This speech is usually referred to as a soliloquy. A soliloquy is a term used to describe a dramatic convention in which a character is expressing their inner thoughts or feelings to the audience but not to other characters in the play. Long soliloquys in which a character explored their feelings were commonly used in plays written during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in England, and this was the time in which Shakespeare was writing his plays. Often during a soliloquy only the actor speaking is on stage; however sometimes, as is the case with the 'to be or not to be' soliloquy, other actors are on stage but keep silent and, by convention, the audience is to assume that they do not hear what the character delivering the soliloquy is saying.