"To Be or Not To Be."

The scene began with a soliloquy done by Hamlet in a room by himself. He begins with the simple words, "To be or not to be: that is the question." (line 56) Because he used a grave tone while saying this, we can infer that this line and scene is important. This line is actually quite popular. Before beginning the play, "Hamlet," I had heard this saying many times, but to be honest, I had no idea what it meant or where it came from. Now I am aware, but i'm still not quite sure what it means. While saying this line, Hamlet also annunciates and speaks very slowly as if he is trying to portray and express the importance of what is going on. He seems confused and has a decision to make. A decision which will change the path of his life, or in this case, the play. A decision of life or death. After watching a certain amount of the video, I decided to look up possible meanings to the line on google. The first website I found was extremely helpful. It had different interpretations of the line from different people along with an explanation as to why they interpreted it that way. The interpretation I agreed with, was one that basically described the soliloquy as a debate between life or death. In my interpretation, Hamlet thought that he had two options: death or life. Death would be a one-way ticket out of the hardships of life, but there was no telling if death if what came after death would be worse. No one can ever return once they choose that path; therefore, we dont have any documents or proof of what the afterlife will be like.

Another thing which helped prove my point and interpretation, is the camera position and angle. During the soliloquy, the camera has a close-up shot of David Tennant's (Hamlet's) face. it is also looking up toward him. These two things show that the person speaking is superior (hight of the camera in regards to the person) and the director wants you to listen and pay attention to what the actor is saying which would most likely be important (angle of the camera).