Shakespeare Soliloquy

Please answer the following:

As you probably now know from this week’s readings, blank verse refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter. One of the most famous examples of blank verse occurs in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. This is an excerpt of Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy.

Please read this excerpt of the the soliloquy:

“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,    5
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:   10
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…”

Then answer the following questions fully in your main discussion post:

What is Hamlet saying in this soliloquy?

What effect does blank verse have on the effect of this soliloquy? In other words, why would a poet choose blank verse?