Monólogo Ser o no ser, esa es la cuestión (Hamlet)

Ser, o no ser, ésa es la cuestión.
¿Cuál es más digna acción del ánimo,
sufrir los tiros penetrantes de la fortuna injusta,
u oponer los brazos a este torrente de calamidades,
y darlas fin con atrevida resistencia?
Morir es dormir. ¿No más?
¿Y por un sueño, diremos, las aflicciones se acabaron
y los dolores sin número,
patrimonio de nuestra débil naturaleza?...
Este es un término que deberíamos solicitar con ansia.
Morir es dormir... y tal vez soñar.
Sí, y ved aquí el grande obstáculo,
porque el considerar que sueños
podrán ocurrir en el silencio del sepulcro,
cuando hayamos abandonado este despojo mortal,
es razón harto poderosa para detenernos.
Esta es la consideración que hace nuestra infelicidad tan larga.
¿Quién, si esto no fuese, aguantaría la lentitud de los tribunales,
la insolencia de los empleados,
las tropelías que recibe pacífico
el mérito de los hombres más indignos,
las angustias de un mal pagado amor,
las injurias y quebrantos de la edad,
la violencia de los tiranos,
el desprecio de los soberbios?
Cuando el que esto sufre,
pudiera procurar su quietud con sólo un puñal.
¿Quién podría tolerar tanta opresión, sudando,
gimiendo bajo el peso de una vida molesta
si no fuese que el temor de que existe alguna cosa más allá de la Muerte
(aquel país desconocido de cuyos límites ningún caminante torna)
nos embaraza en dudas
y nos hace sufrir los males que nos cercan;
antes que ir a buscar otros de que no tenemos seguro conocimiento?
Esta previsión nos hace a todos cobardes,
así la natural tintura del valor se debilita
con los barnices pálidos de la prudencia,
las empresas de mayor importancia
por esta sola consideración mudan camino,
no se ejecutan y se reducen a designios vanos.
Pero... ¡la hermosa Ofelia! Graciosa niña,
espero que mis defectos no serán olvidados en tus oraciones.

Hamlet: III acto, escena 1.

William Shakespeare

El contexto cultural de la época

El famoso monólogo de Hamlet y, en particular, la frase "Ser o no ser, esa es la cuestión", expresan el sentido dilemático de la existencia humana, las inquietudes ante la vida, la muerte, la infinitud, la tradición y la razón propias de la sensibilidad del siglo XVI, a medio camino entre la autoconfianza del renacimiento y el horror vacui del barroco.

Dice el Juan Manuel Rodríguez, en un estudio introductorio a la obra, que:

Hamlet es un príncipe del siglo XVI, que vive un extrañamiento y una enajenación por el choque brutal ante las circunstancias adversas y sus ideas humanísticas (...). Supone Hamlet que antes que un príncipe debe ser, ante todo, un hombre, un amigo. Estos nuevos valores se contradicen con la circunstancia que vive. El fantasma le exige venganza, pero la venganza y la intriga no son sino un regreso a la tradición, un regreso al ojo por ojo y diente por diente.

Con su pregunta, Hamlet abre lugar en el teatro al drama humanístico esencial que se descubría en la época de Shakespeare: el ser humano es más que el rol al cual ha sido "destinado" por los hilos de la historia. El ser humano puede deliberar sobre su destino. ¿Lo hace Hamlet realmente o se queda atrapado en la duda?

La pregunta no es solo ontológica sino ética, por eso la venganza es dilatada hasta el último momento. En realidad, Hamlet vacila siempre entre dos pulsiones profundas: el deseo de venganza y la necesidad de autodominio. De lo contrario, no existiría la pregunta. Lo que Hamlet no se atreve a decidir racionalmente, lo asalta como un giro inevitable de la historia.

Tradición y modernidad, razón y locura, pasión y conciencia son algunas de las cuestiones que se dejan colar en este monólogo de Shakespeare. En medio de todas estas polaridades, "Ser o no ser, esa es la cuestión" encarna un asunto pivotal: la duda ante sí mismo es signo del nacimiento del individuo autoconsciente.

Hamlet: la duda existencial de la conciencia humana

Ser o no ser, estar o no estar, es la pregunta fundamental de la experiencia humana que, cuando los valores y la realidad entran en conflicto, hace que la realidad se asemeje a un vapor gelatinoso e irrespirable, y que la persona se perciba a sí misma como minúscula partícula, carente de dirección y propósito.

Es la duda y la indecisión aquello que ha sido llamado al escenario. La duda y la indecisión aparece en algún momento de la vida humana universal, solo para suspenderlo por breves instantes ante el escrutinio de la conciencia.

Ante la terrible posibilidad de la venganza, la propia muerte parece mejor destino que la vida. Para Hamlet la muerte parece sueño; la vida, pesadilla. El monólogo avanza: sienta a la conciencia en el banquillo de los acusados. La conciencia luce como la justificación de la cobardía ante la única salida que parece digna: morir antes que matar; el sueño eterno, antes que el sufrimiento sin sentido.

¿Acaso la vida es esto que vivimos? ¿Acaso hay algo más tras la puerta de la Parca? Aquella duda, aquella hipótesis que se interroga sobre la posible suerte del alma cuando atraviesa la muerte, actúa como un clavo que prende un velo fugitivo a la madera.

Si así son las cosas, no solo construimos nuestro destino en este mundo, sino en el otro. La conciencia de una suerte peor al cruzar el umbral de la muerte, detiene al que encuentra su propia vida despreciable.

¿Es la conciencia el ardid de los cobardes o acaso es el suicidio la verdadera cobardía? Y si tras la muerte solo espera mayor sufrimiento, ¿de qué valdría provocarla? La duda existencial, la tribulación emocional paraliza al personaje.

Es frente a estas preguntas que el ser humano se interroga sobre quién es y qué significa ser. La identidad y la existencia se debaten, buscan reconfigurarse, redefinirse, encontrar el sentido al curso de los hechos.

Monólogo de Hamlet por Mel Gibson

Compartimos aquí el monólogo de Hamlet interpretado por Mel Gibson en la la película Hamlet, dirigida por Franco Zefirelli en 1990.

First, here is Hamlet’s soliloquy in its entirety.

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 heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished! 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 despised 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 traveler 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 awry,

And lose the name of action. —Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia! —Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

A modern English translation of Hamlet’s soliloquy

The speech is a stunning work of art and the most-studied of all of Shakespeare’s plays. It is best untampered. However, a modern English rendering can untangle some of the puzzling lines and Elizabethan turns of phrase.

Ben Florman, LitCharts’s co-founder, wrote the following modern English translation of Hamlet’s soliloquy:

To live, or to die? That is the question.

Is it nobler to suffer through all the terrible things

fate throws at you, or to fight off your troubles,

and, in doing so, end them completely?

To die, to sleep—because that’s all dying is—

and by a sleep I mean an end to all the heartache

and the thousand injuries that we are vulnerable to—

that’s an end to be wished for!

To die, to sleep. To sleep, perhaps to dream—yes,

but there’s there’s the catch. Because the kinds of

dreams that might come in that sleep of death—

after you have left behind your mortal body—

are something to make you anxious.

That’s the consideration that makes us suffer

the calamities of life for so long.

Because who would bear all the trials and tribulations of time—

the oppression of the powerful, the insults from arrogant men,

the pangs of unrequited love, the slowness of justice,

the disrespect of people in office,

and the general abuse of good people by bad—

when you could just settle all your debts

using nothing more than an unsheathed dagger?

Who would bear his burdens, and grunt

and sweat through a tiring life, if they weren’t frightened

of what might happen after death—

that undiscovered country from which no visitor returns,

which we wonder about and which makes us

prefer the troubles we know rather than fly off

to face the ones we don’t? Thus, the fear of

death makes us all cowards, and our natural

willingness to act is made weak by too much thinking.

Actions of great urgency and importance

get thrown off course because of this sort of thinking,

and they cease to be actions at all.

But wait, here is the beautiful Ophelia!

[To OPHELIA] Beauty, may you forgive all my sins in your prayers.

Hamlet’s soliloquy contains other famous Shakespeare quotes.

In the soliloquy there is more than just the famous line “to be or not to be.”  You may have heard these Shakespearean quotes as well.

• Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles.
• To die, to sleep. / To sleep, perchance to dream
• Ay, there’s the rub,
• Shuffled off this mortal coil
• The pangs of despised love
• To grunt and sweat under a weary life
• Thus conscience does make cowards of us all
• All my sins remembered.

Understanding Hamlet’s Soliloquy, and the meaning of ‘To be or not to be’

What is the meaning of Hamlet’s soliloquy? Here’s a brief explanation of the meaning and themes, drawn from LitCharts’s comprehensive literary guide to Hamlet.

While Polonius and Claudius hide and eavesdrop, Hamlet breaks into this most famous soliloquy, perhaps the best-known speech in the English language. Hamlet returns to the question of suicide, wondering if it would be preferable to end his life or not.

Though Hamlet’s language has grown more direct from its earlier references to “dew,” it still speaks to his passivity in the face of desperation. He phrases the question of death in the abstract with the infinitive verb forms “to be, or not to be”—and makes it “the question” of humanity, as opposed to a personal matter. These choices imply that the decision whether or not to exist is a constant struggle for each person, a struggle that Hamlet tries to mediate through the metric of what is “nobler in the mind.” This phrase implies that death is evaluated based on the perceived correctness or social value, as opposed to, say, a universal ethical system.

For the two options themselves, Hamlet chooses evocative images: “To be” is put in relatively more passive terms as a continuous process of “suffering” an onslaught of external attacks from “outrageous fortune”—that is to say, the constant influx of events that cannot be shifted in one’s destiny. Suicide, on the other hand, is presented as an active fight that wages war on “a sea of troubles” and, indeed, is successful in the endeavor. The phrase “by opposing end them” seems noble or glorious, but what it literally means is to vanquish one’s “outrageous fortune” by ending one’s life. Thus Hamlet presents his lack of suicide not as the result of insufficient desperation, but rather his apathy from wishing to take on such a fight. Life becomes, for him, a constant decision of whether he will finally arrive at sufficient motivation to shift course and end his and/or Claudius’s life.

12 Facts about Hamlet’s Famous ‘To be or not to be’ Soliloquy

• Hamlet wasn’t alone while he uttered his soliloquy. According to the definition of soliloquy, “usually, no other characters are present.” In Hamlet’s case, Ophelia is positioned nearby, while Claudius and Polonius are hiding.
• The scene, Act III, Scene I, in which Hamlet delivers his soliloquy is often called the “nunnery scene.” Hamlet vituperates against Ophelia by telling her to “get thee to a nunnery.”
• According to legend, Hamlet is being performed somewhere in the world every minute of every day. (I’m unaware of where this bit of trivia originated, but its veracity is dubious.)
• The play, set in Denmark, is set, more specifically, in the Kronborg Castle of Helsingør. And, yes, you can rent the castle.
• The ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy is 33 lines long and consists of 262 words.
• The Lion King is the closest a popular Disney movie has come to adapting a Shakespeare play, in this case, Hamlet. Other literary works that borrow Hamlet themes are Great Expectations (Charles Dickens), Ulysses (James Joyce) and Tom Jones (Henry Fielding).
• Want to read Hamlet in Klingon? You can. Hamlet is one of two Shakespearean plays that have been translated into the language of Star Trek’s Klingons. How do you say “To be or not to be” in Klingon? “taH pagh taHbe’!
• Hamlet’s soliloquy takes up to four minutes to perform.
• As far as historians can ascertain, the first Hamlet performance was in 1600 or 1601. The acting troupe was the King’s Men, and the venue was, of course, the Globe.
• Hamlet, at 4,042 lines, is the longest Shakespearean play. Performances usually last 4-5 hours.
• The speech is written in iambic pentameter, and many of the lines have a feminine ending (11 syllables with the ultimate syllable unstressed). Students of Hamlet theorize that the irregularity of the feminine ending lines represents stress or turbulence, which Hamlet is obviously experiencing as he soliloquizes.
• The first person to perform Hamlet’s soliloquy was the actor Richard Burbage. Burbage was one of the most sensational actors ever to grace the Globe. He and Shakespeare were close friends.
• Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet who died at age 11. It is possible that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet as a response to this personal tragedy.

Watch these famous recitations of the soliloquy.

Mel Gibson as Hamlet performs the soliloquy.

Here is David Tennant, former Doctor Who, and award-winning Shakespearean actor in his critically acclaimed performance.