Story · Hamlet
Hamlet, a Ghost, and the Most Famous Question on Stage
What Hamlet is about, why "To be, or not to be" still echoes, and what it was like to watch a play at the Globe.
Even people who have never read Shakespeare know the words "To be, or not to be." They come from Hamlet, a play first performed in London around 1600 about a young prince who cannot decide what to do. More than four centuries later, his hesitation still feels surprisingly familiar.
A ghost with a terrible message
The story opens at Elsinore, the royal castle of Denmark. Prince Hamlet's father, the king, has died suddenly. The dead king's brother, Claudius, has taken the throne and, soon after, married Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Hamlet is grieving and disgusted. Then, one night, his father's ghost appears and tells him something shocking: he did not die naturally. Claudius murdered him.
Hamlet swears revenge, but he does not rush. Can a ghost be trusted? He pretends to be mad to hide his plans, and when a company of travelling actors arrives, he has them perform a play that mirrors his father's murder so he can watch his uncle's reaction. A play inside a play is one of the cleverest moments in the whole drama.
Why one line lasts
"To be, or not to be" opens a soliloquy, a speech in which a character alone on stage speaks his thoughts aloud so the audience can hear them. Hamlet wonders whether it is nobler to suffer life's troubles patiently or to fight against them, and why fear of the unknown makes people hesitate.
The line endures because it asks rather than answers. Hamlet does not announce a decision; he thinks out loud, and the audience thinks with him. Anyone who has stood frozen before a hard choice can recognise the feeling.
An afternoon at the Globe
Shakespeare's company performed at the Globe, a theatre built in 1599 on the south bank of the River Thames. It was round, with an open roof over the centre, so plays were staged in the afternoon by daylight. There were no stage lights, and very little scenery, so the words did most of the work. When a character mentions the cold night air, the audience had to imagine the darkness.
The cheapest tickets were for standing in the yard right in front of the stage, where people stood shoulder to shoulder close to the actors. Those who paid more sat in the covered galleries around the edge. Women were not allowed to act on the public stage, so roles such as Gertrude and Ophelia were played by boys. Audiences were noisy, too, and actors had to hold their attention.
Imagine hearing Hamlet's ghost scene in broad daylight, in a crowd, with no special effects. The play had to be gripping on words alone.
A question to think about
Hamlet does not take revenge on the ghost's word alone; he stages a play and watches his uncle's face to test the truth. Today, when a rumor spreads that someone did something wrong, many people condemn them before the facts are known. The wish for justice and a rush to judgment can sit very close together.
When you feel you have been wronged, what is the difference between punishing someone yourself and leaving the judgment to the law or the community? What does acting fairly look like when the evidence is not certain?