McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XCIV · Part 10: Granada, Hamlet and the Union

100. Hamlet's Soliloquy (William Shakespeare)

Goal: Your student can explain, line by line, the question Hamlet asks and recite its opening.

⏱ About 40 minutes · 6 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook and pen
  • A dictionary

What's in the book

Hamlet's famous speech, To be, or not to be, from Act III, Scene i. It begins in the middle of the page, after the notes to the Granada lesson.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    Look over the notes and definitions printed at the end of the lesson before you start, so names and hard words don't trip up the reading.

    A soliloquy is a speech a character makes alone, thinking aloud. 'Bourn' means boundary; 'fardels' means burdens.

    Your student picks three unfamiliar words, guesses each meaning from the sentence, then checks a dictionary.

  2. About the author

    Shakespeare was introduced earlier in the book. Hamlet is a Danish prince whose father has died and who is troubled about what he should do.

  3. Read aloud

    Read the soliloquy aloud once yourself, slowly. Then your student reads it.

    Listen for these lines:

    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?

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhat two choices is Hamlet weighing at the start?

    SayWhat does he call 'the undiscovered country'? Why does it make people afraid?

    SayList some of the troubles of life Hamlet names.

    SayWhat does he mean by 'conscience doth make cowards of us all'? Is that always bad?

  5. Narration

    Your student paraphrases the soliloquy, a few lines at a time, in modern English.

  6. Memorize or copy

    Memorize the first five lines:

    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?

Afterwards

Recite the five lines daily; add a line a day if your student wishes.

Tip

Hamlet is thinking about death here. Keep the talk on the questions he asks, and be ready to listen if your student brings up something personal.

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