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to be or not to be

What is the meaning of "to be or not to be....." ?

The phrase is from Shakespeare's tragic play "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" (王子復仇記).  It is the beginning of a major soliloquy (i.e. speech spoken in the mind of a drama character, but said out loud for the audience to hear) by Hamlet, the primary character of the play:

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...

At the point of the play, Hamlet is making the decision of whether to proceed with his plan to expose the murder of his father (the former king) by the current king.  In common usage, "to be or not to be" is often quoted by a person who is about to make a difficult decision, one that is between two tough choices.  The usage is similar to "between a rock and a hard place", or 進退(leung)難 in Chinese.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_be%2C_or_not_to_be[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet[/url]

[[i] 本帖最後由 gwaimuilover 於 2007-7-26 17:45 編輯 [/i]]

Very good explanation.

yes, very professional.

it means you face a situation, not sure which way to go.

Gee... that was a very thorough explanation.  Many thanks to lover of gwaimui.