# Hamlet: To be, or not to be

> What is happening, what every line means, how to perform it, and how to use it in an audition, with the full text.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/monologues/to-be-or-not-to-be
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

From [Hamlet](https://www.offbook.com/plays/hamlet) by William Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 1.

## What is happening

It is Act 3, Scene 1. The day before, Hamlet saw a traveling actor weep over an old story and decided to stage a play that might expose his uncle Claudius as his father's murderer. That test has not happened yet. He still has no proof and no plan for revenge.

Just before he enters, Claudius and Polonius set a trap. They place Ophelia in his path with a prayer book and hide to watch how he treats her. Hamlet appears to think he is alone, and most productions play it that way. Some directors let him suspect he is watched, which turns the speech into something closer to a performance.

What Hamlet wants right now is an answer. He is not announcing a decision. He is testing a question out loud: is it better to endure a painful life or to end it, and why do people keep enduring? He arrives at an answer about human nature, not about what he will do, and then Ophelia interrupts him.

- Lines: 35
- Words: 276
- At 150 words a minute: 1.8 minutes
- Form: Verse

## The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 7 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

### Lines 1–5: The question

1. To be, or not to be: that is the question:
2. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
3. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
4. Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
5. And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

**In plain English:** Here is the real choice: to go on, or to stop. Is it braver to put up with everything bad luck throws at you, or to fight back against it and end it all? To die is just to sleep.

**Acting note:** The thought turns in the middle of line 5. 'To die' is a new idea, so give it a fresh breath.

### Lines 6–9: Death as sleep

6. No more; and by a sleep to say we end
7. The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
8. That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
9. Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;

**In plain English:** Sleep, and nothing more. If sleep ends the heartache and all the pain a body is born to, that is an ending anyone would pray for.

**Acting note:** Let this sound truly tempting. The logic needs it strong before he knocks it down.

### Lines 10–13: The catch

10. To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
11. For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
12. When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
13. Must give us pause: there’s the respect

**In plain English:** But in sleep we might dream. What dreams come after death, once we have escaped this busy life? That thought makes us stop.

**Acting note:** 'Ay, there's the rub' is a discovery. He finds the flaw in his own argument right here, so do not play it as if you knew it was coming.

### Lines 14–22: Why do we put up with it?

14. That makes calamity of so long life;
15. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
16. The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
17. The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
18. The insolence of office and the spurns
19. That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
20. When he himself might his quietus make
21. With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
22. To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

**In plain English:** That worry is why people live so long in misery. Who would take the insults of the world, the abuse of the powerful, heartbreak, slow courts, rude officials, and good people trampled by bad ones, when one small dagger could end it? Who would carry such loads, sweating under a tired life?

**Acting note:** Make each item specific. You can tie some to Hamlet's own life, but keep the argument moving.

### Lines 23–27: The undiscovered country

23. But that the dread of something after death,
24. The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
25. No traveller returns, puzzles the will
26. And makes us rather bear those ills we have
27. Than fly to others that we know not of?

**In plain English:** Only the fear of what comes after death, a country no traveler comes back from, confuses our will. It makes us keep the troubles we know rather than run to ones we do not.

**Acting note:** This sentence is the answer to the question that began at line 15. Keep the energy up until 'know not of?'

### Lines 28–33: Thinking makes cowards

28. Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
29. And thus the native hue of resolution
30. Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
31. And enterprises of great pitch and moment
32. With this regard their currents turn awry,
33. And lose the name of action.—Soft you now!

**In plain English:** So thinking makes cowards of everyone. The healthy color of a firm decision goes pale and sickly with too much thought, and big, important plans drift off course and never become action.

**Acting note:** This is the conclusion he has been working toward. It is about more than death. It describes his own failure to act.

### Lines 34–35: Ophelia

34. The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
35. Be all my sins remember’d.

**In plain English:** He notices Ophelia. Beautiful girl, when you pray, remember my sins too.

**Acting note:** 'Soft you now!' at the end of line 33 is a sudden switch from inner thought to the outside world. How you say his first words to her is a choice: gentle, ironic, or wary.

## Hard words

| Word | Line | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *consummation* | 8 | a final ending, a completion |
| *rub* | 10 | obstacle, snag (from the game of bowls) |
| *mortal coil* | 12 | the turmoil and bustle of human life |
| *respect* | 13 | consideration, reason |
| *contumely* | 16 | insulting arrogance |
| *quietus* | 20 | release, final settlement of a debt |
| *bodkin* | 21 | a small dagger |
| *fardels* | 21 | burdens, heavy loads |
| *bourn* | 24 | boundary, border |
| *conscience* | 28 | here mostly 'thinking' or self-awareness, as well as moral sense |
| *pitch* | 31 | height, importance |
| *orisons* | 34 | prayers |

## How to perform it

- Your objective is to work something out, live, in front of the audience. Treat them as the people you are reasoning with. Ask the questions as real questions and let the answers arrive in the moment, not before.
- Do not lean on the first line because it is famous. Say it simply, as the problem Hamlet has been carrying, and then go straight into the explanation. 'To be' can mean to live, to endure, or to act, so decide what it means for your Hamlet before you start.
- Several opening lines end on an extra soft syllable ('question', 'suffer', 'fortune', 'troubles'). These endings keep the thought restless and open. Breathe at the ends of lines and at the strong mid-line breaks (line 5, line 9, line 10), not in the middle of a phrase.
- Lines 15 to 27 are one long question. The common mistake is to let the energy sag halfway through the list. Hold the question in the air until 'that we know not of?' and then let line 28 land as the result.
- Avoid playing it as a slow, sad meditation. Grief is underneath, but the speech is a sharp argument, with discoveries at 'To die', 'ay, there's the rub', and 'Thus conscience'.

## Using it in an audition

Be careful with this one. It is the most famous speech in the language, and audition lists of overdone pieces name it again and again. Panels have heard it countless times and often have fixed ideas about it, so it can work against you without a fresh, specific reading. It suits actors who can play a young, intelligent, grieving prince, roughly late teens to early thirties. For a 90-second version, stop at line 33 on 'And lose the name of action' and drop 'Soft you now!', so the speech ends on its conclusion and not on Ophelia. If you use it, pair it with a contrasting piece that shows warmth or comedy and a clear outward objective, since this speech mostly shows thought.

Hamlet, Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1. William Shakespeare. Public domain text.

## How long it runs

| Pace | Words a minute | Run time |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Deliberate | 130 | 2.1 minutes |
| Conversational | 150 | 1.8 minutes |
| Brisk | 170 | 1.6 minutes |

These are speech times before pauses. To time your own run, paste the text into the [monologue timer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/monologue-timer). Cut points that stop at a full sentence: near 90 seconds (after line 33).

## Practice it: first-letter version

Each word is cut to its first letter. Say the whole line from the letters, then check the text. Make cues from any script with the [first-letter memorizer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/first-letter-memorizer).

```text
T b, o n t b: t i t q:
W ’t n i t m t s
T s a a o o f,
O t t a a a s o t,
A b o e t? T d: t s;
N m; a b a s t s w e
T h-a a t t n s
T f i h t, ’t a c
D t b w. T d, t s;
T s: p t d: a, t t r;
F i t s o d w d m c
W w h s o t m c,
M g u p: t t r
T m c o s l l;
F w w b t w a s o t,
T o w, t p m c,
T p o d l, t l d,
T i o o a t s
T p m o t u t,
W h h m h q m
W a b b? w w f b,
T g a s u a w l,
B t t d o s a d,
T u c f w b
N t r, p t w
A m u r b t i w h
T f t o t w k n o?
T c d m c o u a;
A t t n h o r
I s o w t p c o t,
A e o g p a m
W t r t c t a,
A l t n o a.—S y n!
T f O! N, i t o
B a m s r.
```

## More from Hamlet

- [How many lines does Hamlet have?](https://www.offbook.com/plays/hamlet/hamlet)
- [Hamlet: O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!](https://www.offbook.com/monologues/o-what-a-rogue-and-peasant-slave)
- [Ophelia: O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!](https://www.offbook.com/monologues/o-what-a-noble-mind)
- [Every role in Hamlet, by size](https://www.offbook.com/plays/hamlet)

## Sources

- [Hamlet Monologue Act 3 Scene 1 | To be, or not to be, that is the question (StageMilk)](https://www.stagemilk.com/hamlet-act-3-scene-i/)
- [To be or not to be | Shakespeare Learning Zone (Royal Shakespeare Company)](https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/hamlet/language/to-be-or-not-to-be)
- [Overdone Monologues (PlayShakespeare.com)](https://www.playshakespeare.com/monologues/overdone-monologues)

## Questions actors ask

### How long is Hamlet’s To be, or not to be speech?

35 lines and 276 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 1.8 minutes; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 2.1 minutes. Pauses add time, so time a full run out loud.

### Is it a good audition monologue?

Be careful with this one. It is the most famous speech in the language, and audition lists of overdone pieces name it again and again. Panels have heard it countless times and often have fixed ideas about it, so it can work against you without a fresh, specific reading. It suits actors who can play a young, intelligent, grieving prince, roughly late teens to early thirties. For a 90-second version, stop at line 33 on 'And lose the name of action' and drop 'Soft you now!', so the speech ends on its conclusion and not on Ophelia. If you use it, pair it with a contrasting piece that shows warmth or comedy and a clear outward objective, since this speech mostly shows thought.

### What is the fastest way to memorize it?

Learn it in sense units, not line by line: say each thought out loud until you can do it without looking, then add the next. The first-letter version below keeps the shape of every line in view while you test yourself.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-shakespeare/hamlet) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).