Okay, let me explain this a little…Hamlet is my favorite Shakespearian tragedy (that I've read). On top of that, I think that its hard to find a soliloquy that has more ambiguity and than Hamlet's "To be or not to be…" speech. So I decided to write a response to this soliloquy from the view point of none other than Sirius Black, since he and Hamlet have a good deal in common. BTW please review. I like reviews, they make me happy....they're kind of like drugs that way.

Special note: Although I believe Sirius (like Hamlet) to be sane, I do believe that his time in Azkaban would have most definitely put a strain on his psyche. Hence the nightmares discussed in his response.

Disclaimer: I own Sirius' response. The Hamlet speech, obviously, comes from the bard, Willy Shakespeare.


The Speech Taken from Hamlet (Act III, Scene I )

To be or not to be: that is the question:
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;
No more; and by sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: aye there's the rub;
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;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would burdens bear,
To grunt and swear under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to other that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action…..
….Be all my sins remembered.


Sirius' Response (In Iambic Pentameter (insert big happy face here )

To be or not to be, that is the question.
A good one too, but easily answered.
Hamlet, my brother, I am plagued by
This sickness of the mind for which you speak. My
Sea of troubles is, however, without an end.
To sleep? To dream? Both I do refuse. For
I know what lies in dreams and how they come.
They arrive swiftly and without an end.
Like serpents they writhe and entangle my psyche.
So much so that I choose death o'er them. Aye!
There's the irony. Why then do I continue to live,
To exist, to embrace this mortal coil? I
Fight for those whose lives were lost and for those
That live. These are people who deflect the arrows
Sent by those who would see the soul of heaven pierced.
Let those dark archers inherit that wild
And unfathomable country of death.
To answer your first question Sir Hamlet,
I choose to be, to act, and to defend.
For the true form of cowardice, lies not
In thinking, but by not taking action,
Which has caused the fall of many great kingdoms.
Although, brother, we share a common story,
The end of mine will reveal our distinct fates.
Un-like you, we will fight. And come what may,
Be all our deeds remembered.