Peng-to be or not to be - 副本.pptVIP

Hamlet is a tragedy, the longest, most difficult and often considered the greatest of Shakespeare’s 37 plays. To be or Not to Be Functions of the soliloquy: 1) to give expression to a complicated state of mind and feeling of a character 2) to provide a point of view on the events of the play. Main Idea: This is an internal philosophical debate on the advantages and disadvantages of existence, and whether it is ones right to end his or her own life. It presents a most logical and powerful examination of the theme of the moral legitimacy of suicide in an unbearably painful world. Question Why is this soliloquy so important? What quality of Hamlet’s mind does it reveal? What rhetoric device is used in this soliloquy? What’s its effect? What makes the action impossible? What will you choose—to live or to die, in the unbearable situation? And why? Hamlet: Soliloquy 戏剧独白 Act III, scene 1 Soliloquy (monologue): a character speaks alone on the stage to reveal his inner thoughts This soliloquy is in blank verse素体诗，as most of other Elizabethan plays are. blank verse: unrhymed poetry in iambic pentameter. Theme: [1] the whole play: revenge. [2] this monologue: death. Hamlet heard his father’s ghost telling him that it was his uncle who had murdered his father. Here he is not simply hesitating as to whether to take revenge or not, but rather he is thinking about whether to reform the society through killing his uncle the new king or just let it be. Plot The whole passage may be divided into three sections: Section 1 (till line 9): to die is as easy as to sleep. 1To?be,?or?not?to?be-that?is?the?question:? “To be, or not to be” has become a proverb to mean hesitating between 2 difficult choices. Here the phrase has 2 levels of meanings: ■ to live or to die; ■ to take actions to reform the society or let it be. To be =to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune not to be =take