self-portrait: to be or not to be..

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    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 heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
    That flesh is heir to — 'tis a consummation
    Devoutly to be wish'd. 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 traveller 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 remember'd.

    De versregel "To be, or not to be (that is the question)" komt uit William Shakespeares Hamlet (Act III, Scene I), geschreven omstreeks 1600. Het is een van de meest aangehaalde citaten uit de hele wereldliteratuur en ook het bekendste fragment uit de monoloog van Hamlet.

    Geparafraseerd betekent het gedicht ongeveer het volgende: "De vraag is: is het beter om te leven dan wel dood te zijn? Is het nobeler om geduldig alle onheil te ondergaan die het lot je toewerpt of valt het te verkiezen om de strijd tegen alle zorgen te beëindigen door gewoon jezelf te doden?"

    De monoloog heeft de aard van een aporie, want hij eindigt niet met een conclusie en de protagonist blijft met zijn twijfel zitten over de actie die hij moet ondernemen.

    Bron: wikipedia

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