HAMLET Act 3, Scene 1: Read and annotate the text of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be..” soliloquy.

Then rewrite the text in

your own words in the box on the right.
Directions #1: Highlight, in one color, all punctuation marks that represent a pause or a stop ( -- , . ? : ; ! )
Directions #2: In another color, highlight any word that is either unfamiliar to you or its meaning is unknown to you.
Directions #3: In a third color, highlight figurative language (including imagery, metaphor, personification) that creates tone.
Directions #4: Rewrite the soliloquy, line by line, in modern language. Make sure the words you choose reflect the correct meaning
of the original text.

Original Text Close Reading Analysis- Rewrite/translate into modern language

1. To be or not to be—that is the question: 1.__________________________________________

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer ____________________________________________

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, ____________________________________________

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles ____________________________________________

5. And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep— 5.___________________________________________

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.
10.__________________________________________
10. To sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub!
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For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
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When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
____________________________________________
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
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That makes calamity of so long life.
15.__________________________________________
15. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
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Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
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The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
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The insolence of office, and the spurns
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That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
20.__________________________________________
20. When he himself might his quietus make
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With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

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But that the dread of something after death, ____________________________________________

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn ____________________________________________

25. No traveler returns, puzzles the will 25.__________________________________________

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 ____________________________________________

30. Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

30. _________________________________________

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And enterprises of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry ____________________________________________

And lose the name of action. ____________________________________________