Inaugural post alert!

Hello, and thank you for joining me. This blog is my way of sharing my myriad thoughts on theatre, cinema, dining, cocktails - you name it. Consider it a paean to the things we love to do after dark (and sometimes mid afternoon).

Without much (further) ado about nothing (I always thought this would have made for a hilarious subtitle to Hamlet), let’s get right down to it:

Shakespeare’s writing in verse is important to note. For a performer, it is often indicative of what is happening within a character’s thoughts and actions. Ten beats per line (sometimes more, telling). Sometimes rhyming, sometimes not. Sometimes breaking into prose. The breakdown of stressed and unstressed syllables is absolutely key to understanding the language.

Arguably the most well known (and most-quoted) speech among Shakespeare’s work is “To be, or not to be…” It’s a beautifully introspective speech, but I believe is much more active than most portray or speak.

Let’s take a closer look at the rhythm of the opening line alone:

“To be, or not to be, that is the question:”

More often than not, an actor will stress “that” when speaking the line. To actually speak “to be or not to be, THAT is the question.” Stressing “that” belies the entire intention of the speech. It doesn’t make sense for Hamlet to answer his own question in the very opening line of the thesis.

The very property of the verb “is” in this instance is as such: it is dynamic, rather than stative. It continues the progress of the thought, the very discovery of what Hamlet is contemplating (existentialism? Perhaps). He is discovering the very questions he proposes throughout the speech.

Thus, to stress “is,” makes much more sense. All of which lines up with the traditional scanning of the line.

“To be, or not to be, that IS the question:”

This is not indicative of all the Shakespearean “isms.” We will talk about those later.

Let me know your thoughts.