Gu Zhenbiao's 61 Lectures on Foreign Literature - Student Edition

Author: Gu Zhenhu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Hamlet (Act III, Scene) To be or not to be, that is a question worth considering; to suffer the rod of fate's cruel arrows in silence, or to rise up and fight against the endless suffering of the world, sweeping it away through struggle—of these two courses, which is more noble? To die; to sleep; to end all; if in this sleep we could end our heart's grief and all the blows that flesh cannot avoid, that would indeed be the sweetest ending. 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. People willingly endure long suffering for this very reason; who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law's delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the 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, if not that dread of something after death, the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveller returns, gives us pause? 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 pith and moment with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action.
Haste, fair Ophelia!—God, thy prayer remember me to him! Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's four great tragedies, its theme drawn from the History of Denmark by the Danish historian Saxo. It tells the story of Prince Hamlet avenging his father's murder. The Danish King is murdered, and his brother Claudius ascends the throne, hastily marrying the Queen. The King's son, the young Prince Hamlet, is deeply troubled by this turn of events. One day, the Ghost of the old King appears to him, revealing the truth: the treacherous Claudius, using sweet words to deceive the Queen, had conspired to poison the King. Hamlet swears to avenge his father. He feigns madness to confuse his enemies and uses the opportunity of a play-within-a-play to expose Claudius. Hamlet accidentally kills the old counselor Polonius, and Claudius uses this as a pretext to send him to England, planning to have him killed by the King. Hamlet discovers his plot and returns to Denmark. Claudius then incites Polonius's son Laertes to duel with Hamlet, preparing poison and a poisoned sword to ensure his death. However, during the duel, both men are accidentally struck by the poisoned sword, the Queen drinks the poisoned wine, and the poisoned Laertes exposes Claudius's treachery. In a fit of rage, Hamlet kills Claudius, and in the process, both he and Laertes die from the poison.
The passage selected above is Hamlet's soliloquy before his act of revenge. Hamlet is a young man of ideals and deep thought, who, during his studies, embraced the highly advanced humanism of his time.