To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream.
Words i need to look up (Credit to dictionary)
Perchance –
pəˈtʃɑːns/
adverb
archaicliterary
adverb: perchance
by some chance; perhaps.
When going through the sentence I first realise that the words sleep and die both are states of limbo in a person where all their senses suspend belief and all troubles are taken away. With the overall feeling of depression and ambiance from the soliloquy with the whole soliloquy basically being a man trying to question whether or not he should stay alive or kill himself.
With this quote however I could make the observation that from the use of the word “dream” it is as if his mental mindset is that he wants to kill himself and the use of “perchance to dream” which is basically prehaps to dream which doesn’t make much sense because people don’t normally perhaps that they will dream tonight because most people do dream. It is as if hamlet isn’t talking right now and he has been taken over by the unfortunate events that have led to this point in his life.
The language comes of as more of a question instead of a statement like asking perhaps to dream which is strange because most people do dream so it’s not really a question that needs to be asked and also it comes of as a metaphor aswell because it is like to dream is to be in a perfect state and dying is the place he is looking towards, this is also because sleep is really meaning death because Hamlet at this moment in time doesn’t want to say death which is understandable due to his father’s death and him now contemplating death
React!