哈姆萊特個人的經典獨白：

Hamlet:

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 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 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.

生存還是毀滅，這是一個值得考慮的問題；默然忍受命運的暴虐的毒箭，或是挺身反抗人世的無涯的苦難，透過鬥爭把它們掃清，這兩種行為，哪一種更高貴？死了；睡著了；什麼都完了；要是在這一種睡眠之中，我們心頭的創痛，以及其他無數血肉之軀所不能避免的打擊，都可以從此消失，那正是我們求之不得的結局。死了；睡著了；睡著了也許還會做夢；嗯，阻礙就在這兒：因為當我們擺脫了這一具朽腐的皮囊以後，在那死的睡眠裡，究竟將要做些什麼夢，那不能不使我們躊躇顧慮。人們甘心久困於患難之中，也就是為了這個緣故；誰願意忍受人世的鞭撻和譏嘲、壓迫者的凌辱、傲慢者的冷眼、被輕蔑的愛情的慘痛、法律的遷延、官吏的橫暴和費盡辛勤所換來的小人的鄙視，要是他只要用一柄小小的刀子，就可以清算他自己的一生？誰願意負著這樣的重擔，在煩勞的生命的壓迫下呻吟流汗，倘不是因為懼怕不可知的死後，懼怕那從來不曾有一個旅人回來過的神秘之國，是它迷惑了我們的意志，使我們寧願忍受目前的磨折，不敢向我們所不知道的痛苦飛去？這樣，重重的顧慮使我們全變成了懦夫，決心的赤熱的光彩，被審慎的思維蓋上了一層灰色，偉大的事業在這一種考慮之下，也會逆流而退，失去了行動的意義。

奧菲利亞讚美哈姆萊特的經典對話：

OPHELIA: Good, my lord,

How does your honor for this many a day?

HAMLET: I humbly thank you; well, well, well.

OPHELIA: My lord, I have remembrances of yours

That I have longed to redeliver;

I pray you now receive them.

HAMLET: NO, not I;

I never gave you aught.

OPHELIA: My honour'd lord, I know right well you did;

And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd

As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,

Take these again; for to the noble mind

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

There, my lord.

HAMLET: Ha, ha! are you honest?

OPHELIA: My lord?

HAMLET: Are you fair?

OPHELIA: What means your lordship?

HAMLET: That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.

OPHELIA: Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?

HAMLET: Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness: this was sometimes a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.

OPHELIA: Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

HAMLET: You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so innoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not.

OPHELIA: I was the more deceived.

Hamlet believes that Ophelia has been contaminated by the arts of Claudius, and that she is even now his willing agent; and so in the subsequent conversation with her, he warns her to fly from the contamination of this world--not by suicide, but to a nunnery.

Go thy way to a nunnery. Where's your father?

OPHELIA: At home, my lord.

Hamlet does not believe that Polonius is at home; he has a suspicion that the King and his lord chamberlain are in hearing, and so he takes leave of Ophelia in words intended for the ears of the King:

I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery go!

OPHELIA: O what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword;

The expectancy and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion and the mould of form,

The observ'd of all observers, quite, quite down

And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,

That suck'd the honey of his music vows,

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,

Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;

That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth

Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,

To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

奧菲利婭 我的好殿下，您這許多天來貴體安好嗎？

哈姆萊特 謝謝你，很好，很好，很好。

奧菲利婭 殿下，我有幾件您送給我的紀念品，我早就想把它們還給您；請您現在收回去吧。

哈姆萊特 不，我不要；我從來沒有給你什麼東西。

奧菲利婭 殿下，我記得很清楚您把它們送給了我，那時候您還向我說了許多甜言蜜語，使這些東西格外顯得貴重；現在它們的芳香已經消散，請您拿回去吧，因為在有骨氣的人看來，送禮的人要是變了心，禮物雖貴，也會失去了價值。拿去吧，殿下。

哈姆萊特 哈哈！你貞潔嗎？

奧菲利婭 殿下！

哈姆萊特 你美麗嗎？

奧菲利婭 殿下是什麼意思？

哈姆萊特 要是你既貞潔又美麗，那麼你的貞潔應該斷絕跟你的美麗來往。

奧菲利婭 殿下，難道美麗除了貞潔以外，還有什麼更好的伴侶嗎？

哈姆萊特 嗯，真的；因為美麗可以使貞潔變成淫蕩，貞潔卻未必能使美麗受它自己的感化；這句話從前像是怪誕之談，可是現在時間已經把它證實了。我的確曾經愛過你。

奧菲利婭 真的，殿下，您曾經使我相信您愛我。

哈姆萊特 你當初就不應該相信我，因為美德不能薰陶我們罪惡的本性；我沒有愛過你。

奧菲利婭 那麼我真是受了騙了。

哈姆萊特 進尼姑庵去吧；為什麼你要生一群罪人出來呢？我自己還不算是一個頂壞的人；可是我可以指出我的許多過失，一個人有了那些過失，他的母親還是不要生下他來的好。我很驕傲，有仇必報，富於野心，我的罪惡是那麼多，連我的思想也容納不下，我的想像也不能給它們形像，甚至於我都沒有充分的時間可以把它們實行出來。像我這樣的傢伙，匍匐於天地之間，有什麼用處呢？我們都是些十足的壞人；一個也不要相信我們。進尼姑庵去吧。你的父親呢？

奧菲利婭 在家裡，殿下。

哈姆萊特 把他關起來，讓他只好在家裡發發傻勁。再會！

奧菲利婭 噯喲，天哪！救救他！

哈姆萊特 要是你一定要嫁人，我就把這一個咒詛送給你做嫁奩：儘管你像冰一樣堅貞，像雪一樣純潔，你還是逃不過讒人的誹謗。進尼姑庵去吧，去；再會！或者要是你必須嫁人的話，就嫁給一個傻瓜吧；因為聰明人都明白你們會叫他們變成怎樣的怪物。進尼姑庵去吧，去；越快越好。再會！

奧菲利婭 天上的神明啊，讓他清醒過來吧！

哈姆萊特 我也知道你們會怎樣塗脂抹粉；上帝給了你們一張臉，你們又替自己另外造了一張。你們煙視媚行，淫聲浪氣，替上帝造下的生物亂取名字，賣弄你們不懂事的風騷。算了吧，我再也不敢領教了；它已經使我發了狂。我說，我們以後再不要結什麼婚了；已經結過婚的，除了一個人以外，都可以讓他們活下去；沒有結婚的不準再結婚，進尼姑庵去吧，去。（下。）

奧菲利婭 啊，一顆多麼高貴的心是這樣殞落了！朝臣的眼睛、學者的辯舌、軍人的利劍、國家所矚望的一朵嬌花；時流的明鏡、人倫的雅範、舉世注目的中心，這樣無可挽回地殞落了！我是一切婦女中間最傷心而不幸的，我曾經從他音樂一般的盟誓中吮吸芬芳的甘蜜，現在卻眼看著他的高貴無上的理智，像一串美妙的銀鈴失去了諧和的音調，無比的青春美貌，在瘋狂中雕謝！啊！我好苦，誰料過去的繁華，變作今朝的泥土！