Is it just that Hamlet listened to too much Radiohead, or is there more to it?
Well known words, these…
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…
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…
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;
Can you see what his point is? To be honest, neither could I at first (I studied it for A levels, but that was a long time ago, and since then my literary input has been more on the Lucado level), but I’ll give you a summary.
Life, for Hamlet is shot. Dad’s dead, probably killed by Uncle Claudius, who not only is now King of Denmark, but has also managed to bag himself a ready made queen, Ham’s mum.
Watching his mum snog his uncle is enough to make the poor boy go mad, which he promptly does (or does he? [I think that's what my teacher was driving at, at least]).
Either way, Hamlet wants to be dead. He cannot see any reason to stay alive any longer. Life could not get any worse. But there’s just one thing stopping him; he is terrified of death. Absolutely, horrifically, terrified of it. Even though life is crud, the fact that death is so unknown (the undiscover’d country bit) leaves him unable to choose. For Hamlet, life or death is a lose/lose choice. ‘If I live, life is rubbish; but if I die… who knows what comes next?’ So he can’t choose - the choice was just too hard.
When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was balancing a similar choice, but he seems to be able to do it in a little bit more of a ‘glass half empty way’ - Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
So why are both of them asking the same question in such different ways? Is it just that Paul is one of those terrible ‘eternal optimists’ and that Hamlet is just a sixth former who listens to too much Radiohead, or is there more too it?
The reason why death for Paul is not going to be hit and hope is because he’s got a certainty of something better – something even better than living for Christ in this world – it’s living with Christ, fully, perfectly, undistractedly, in the next. Paul’s talking about his ‘deliverance’, his going to be with Jesus, as soon as his life is up. It’s not just his wish, it’s his ‘eager expectation and hope’.
He’s so certain of it, that he can almost taste it. So whatever happens to him, it won’t change the glory ahead. He’s so in love with what Christ has promised him in the future, even the ‘now’, prison and all, is in terms of the glory of Christ that’s ahead. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain… because he knows he’ll gain Christ.
It’s total win/win. I live – I get Christ. I die – I get Christ.
For Hamlet? Life sucks, death sucks.
For Paul? Life Christ, death Christ.
Jesus is the difference.
