This extract is from the famous "To be, or not to be"
fourth soliloquy in Hamlet in which the young prince contemplates
the existential question of meaning in life. In this soliloquy Hamlet virtually wallows
in his melancholy, but because he is Catholic and suicide is a mortal sin punishable by
the soul's being put in hell, Hamlet engages in much self-debate over ending his
misery. Indeed, it is this fear of the unknown--
Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and
sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after
death
--that causes people to
bear whatever burdens live deals them. And, thus, Hamlet concludes "conscience makes
cowards of us all." For, it is the fear of the next life, what punishment it may hold
and what miseries lie therein--"the undiscover'd country"--from which no one has
returned to report on it that people bear their "ills," their heartaches and dilemmas,
their misery and suffering, rather than end their lives.
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