In perhaps the most quoted line in all literature, "To be or not to be" (3.1, line 64), Hamlet contemplates suicide. Hamlet ponders whether he should simply quickly end the sorrows of his life, i.e., commit suicide, or continue his life and let fortune ease these struggles or continue to add more sorrows. The last time we saw Hamlet, he cursed himself for his lack of resolve and determination. action. He observed an actor weep and groan on stage in grief for Hecuba, the fallen queen of Troy, to whom the actor had no connection. In the previous act, Hamlet's father appeared to him in the form of a ghost to tell Hamlet that Hamlet's uncle had killed his father and then married Hamlet's mother, in the process assuming Hamlet's right to the throne as heir to Denmark . For this reason Hamlet believes he has a thousand times more right to be angry and vengeful than this actor does. However, Hamlet simply cannot muster the same anger as the actor nor can he come up with a plan that exacts revenge for his fallen father. Furthermore, Hamlet is also quite dubious about the claims made by the ghost. Despite his despondent and uncertain behavior, at the end of his impassioned diatribe against himself, Hamlet finally devises a plan to test the validity of the ghost's claims. He will put on a show with a plot that imitates the current situation; somehow a king will be murdered by a close relative and that close relative will take the queen as his wife. Hamlet will observe Claudius' reaction and if Claudius shows a sign of pain, Hamlet's doubts will be eased and he will kill Claudius. Hamlet at the end of this soliloquy says defiantly, "The play is the thing / Wherein I will take the king's conscience." (Act 2. Sc 2. lines 633-634) Hamle...... middle of the sheet...... yet death is a permanent sleep. Hamlet reflects that humans suffer in this life because they do not know what the next life holds. In essence, Hamlet comes to the conclusion that the fear of death makes men cowards. Hamlet believes that men dwell on what will happen in the afterlife and because of this he loses the sense of action. In a way, Hamlet softens death in this soliloquy. It makes it seem like an eternal sleep that men are afraid to enter. Because men spend so much time in their earthly lives thinking about what this eternal sleep will be like, they waste time that they could have acted on. The purpose of this soliloquy is to make Hamlet realize that he should simply stop wondering what will happen in the afterlife and take action now. This soliloquy makes Hamlet realize that he must become a man of action and purpose, not a man who wallows in self-pity..