July 11, 2007

  • to be or not to be: that is the question!

    As a birthday present, my sister is taking me to watch Hamlet at the Old Globe Theatre tonight!  I love watching plays on the stage.  There's so much creativity that is required in order to achieve the desired goal of making that platform transform into another world.  The actors need to have enough skill and talent to help you suspend your disbelief for those hours together.  There is no camera, no "cut", no digital editing.  Props are scant.  And so when the last curtain closes and you find yourself involuntarily exhaling as a way of entering back into real life again, and you come to the realization that you've been holding your breath that whole time, then you know, genius was achieved...  and that genius is marvelous, indeed.

    Shakespeare's character Hamlet is most memorable to me for his tragic flaw of procrastination and indecision.  The play is also most memorable from AP English, senior year in high school, with good ol' Mr. Mosher.  We had to memorize:

    To be, or not to be (from William Shakespeare - Hamlet)

    "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;"

    Such considerations are not to be trifled with.

Comments (2)

Comments are closed.

Post a Comment