In his soliloquy Hamlet is concerned with a doubt :
whether life is better than death. He is alone but he speaks
in the first person plural because he is giving voice to the
biggest of man’s dilemmas. He wonders which is the right
attitude towards life: whether it is better to live and suffer
stoic noble forbearance of adverse fortune or have an
active opposition to it. So while the verb “ suffer” means a
passive attitude, “ take arms” conveys the idea of an active
attitude towards life. In lines 5-10 he introduces an
alternative: death. Death as the only way to escape the
sorrow and pain of the injustices and miseries inflicted on
mankind. Then, in lines 10-13 Hamlet points out that man
fears what may happen after death and in line 28 he says “
conscience” makes us cowards since it is linked to
consciousness which produces cowardice preventing us
from committing suicide. Hamlet seems to resent his own
incapacity to act and to put an end to his life because of his
“ conscience”. In fact, Death would be preferable to Life’s
suffering if man was not scared by the thought of what
there may be beyond it. It is this that makes cowards of
men and take s away the will to act.
