劇情介紹：丹麥國王在花園打盹時突然死去。他的弟弟克勞迪亞斯(Claudius)接替王位，又娶原王妃(Gertrude)為妻。前國王兒子哈姆雷特(Hamlet)對父親的死因有所懷疑，終日鬱悶不樂。其後，在王國城堡的露台上，幾名值夜的士兵突遇老國王的鬼魂，驚恐萬分，他們把這個發現秘密地告訴王子，哈姆雷特決定去看的究竟...

劇情介紹：哈姆雷特(Hamlet)見到了父親的鬼魂，知道叔叔(Claudius)如何毒害父親、篡位娶母的真相後，內心陷入了兩難的抉擇，面對已死父親交代給他的復仇任務，以及復仇本身有傷害人命的不安感，哈姆雷特遲遲無法下決心，是否採取復仇行動...。有名的「To be or not to be, that is the question.」即出自本場景。

Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1: To be or not to be

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,--
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, 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;
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 despis'd 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 these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,--
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns,--puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others 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 pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.