Literary scholars often claim that Shakespeare was a playwright with talent "well before his time." He thought things that had never before been thought. He was a scholar who the world will remember for centuries to come. He conveyed ideas that didn't even have a word to describe them at the time. The most modern idea that Shakespeare conveyed in his play "Hamlet" is existentialism. Existentialism as defined by Kohn "is a philosophy of balance: To exist is literally marvelous and not to be taken for granted, but that existence is shot through with finitude; our freedom to define ourselves is exhilarating but also a terrible burden; that God is dead -- an historical statement, not a theological one – allows us to "belong to a higher history than any history hitherto," but suggests utter abandonment, a loneliness of dreadful proportions" (1). Merrill agrees with "No definition, no specific contextual significance, but perhaps a vague allusion to being alive or not being alive" (1). At key moments of crisis in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Hamlet speaks of the nature of life, death, and meaning; those discussions suggest that to have meaning in life you must give it to yourself.
The "To be or not to be" soliloquy provides the clearest example(s) of existential thought. The number of existential thoughts in this monologue are endless, so let us start at the beginning. "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 of against a sea of troubles" (III, 1, 56-60). McCoy says "He doesn't simply ask whether life or death is preferable; it's hard to clearly distinguish the two-"being" comes to look a lot like "not being," and vice versa."(1).
In these lines Hamlet is asking the biggest existential question of them all, whether to keep living or to kill himself.
