Name: "To Be or Not to Be" Hamlet Soliloquy Analysis
SKU: 60f2c6cc1968b918a36a3b05
Price: 39.99 USD
Availability: InStock

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Hamlet's full 'To be or not to be' soliloquy (Act III, scene i) is printed for a class read-aloud, followed by a graphic-organizer analysis task where students list the advantages and disadvantages Hamlet weighs in contemplating suicide, identify his metaphors for death, summarize his conclusion, and name his tragic flaw. A second section directs students to watch a modern video adaptation by 'Sonnet Man' on YouTube and answer three response questions about its modern setting, the effectiveness of its paraphrase, and its tone. A complete answer key reproduces both the soliloquy analysis (e.g., listing 'eternal sleep' and ending suffering as advantages, and fear of the unknown as a disadvantage) and open-ended sample responses to the video questions, explicitly noting that video-response answers may vary. Numbered instructions at the front walk a teacher through printing, reading the soliloquy as a class, and assigning both the text and video question sets in sequence. Teachers building a broader Shakespearean-soliloquy unit can pair this with the Othello soliloquies analysis, which applies the same close-reading and video-response structure to Iago’s interior monologues.

Product description

From the author

A soliloquy Analysis of Hamlet's famous soliloquy. Includes a link to a video, handouts, and an answer key.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Analyze the advantages and disadvantages Hamlet weighs regarding suicide within the soliloquy
Identify and interpret Hamlet's metaphors for death, such as sleep and the 'undiscovered country'
Define and apply the literary concept of a tragic flaw to Hamlet's character
Evaluate a modern video adaptation's effectiveness and tone in reinterpreting a classical text

Teaching tips

Read the soliloquy aloud as a class before assigning the graphic organizer, as the included instructions specifically recommend
Use the answer key's note that video-response answers 'may vary' to set expectations that those three questions are opinion-based, unlike the soliloquy analysis section
Preview the linked Sonnet Man video before class to confirm it is still available and appropriate for your students
Have students complete the tragic-flaw question after finishing the pros/cons and metaphor sections, since the analysis builds toward that conclusion

Skills covered

Close reading of Shakespearean verse — students read and interpret the 'To be or not to be' soliloquy for meaning.
Literary device identification — students name Hamlet's specific metaphors for death, such as sleep and the undiscovered country.
Character analysis — students identify Hamlet's tragic flaw as indecision and inability to act, based on textual evidence.
Media comparison — students evaluate how a modern video adaptation reinterprets and conveys the original soliloquy's message and tone.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How do the pros/cons list and the tragic-flaw question in the graphic organizer build on each other?

The advantages/disadvantages list has students trace Hamlet's internal weighing of life versus death, and the tragic-flaw question then asks them to name the personal quality — indecision and inability to act — that explains why he ultimately does neither, tying the two parts of the organizer together.

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Curriculum

Standards, concepts & topics

Standards

CCSS.RL.9.4 — Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
CCSS.RI.9.1 — Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Core concepts

Hamlet
soliloquy analysis
tragic flaw
Shakespearean literature

Topics

Hamlet Soliloquy Literary Analysis Shakespeare To be or not to be

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"To Be or Not to Be" Hamlet Soliloquy Analysis