Which is really what Hamlet’s soliloquy is all about. Of course soliloquy has to do with speaking on one’s own to oneself, although Hamlet is not alone on stage as
Ophelia is on stage waiting for him to see her and Claudius and Polonius have concealed themselves to hear him.
from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_be,_or_not_to_be#
But why is to be or not to be related to the question of good and evil. It is quite simple really.
Let’s go to Genesis, the first book of the bible. Here we have reference to good and evil together in chapter 2 v.9.
“Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
The words in Hebrew for good and evil are these from
https://biblehub.com/interlinear/genesis/2-9.htm
Good
ט֥וֹב – ṭō·wḇ – strictly meaning ‘of good’.
N.B. ‘of good’ anagrams for example to:
‘go food’, i.e. food to make you go, give you energy.
‘foo God’, i.e. foo as in the sound ‘fu’ from the Chinese as in fortunate; prosperity, good luck”. See
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foo#Etymology_2
ṭō·wḇ phonetically is ‘tobe’, i.e. ‘to be’.
To be is to exist, a state of being.
N.B. the name Toby (from Tobias) has the same derivation. Tobias means ‘Yah is good’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobias
ṭō·wḇ can be reorganised to ‘two b’ like the sound of ‘tobe’.
So is being two, two people for example, good? Well, I shall address that in another post.
What is also interesting is if you take the full letters from the Hebrew which are tes, vav and beis. Anagram these and we can have these phrases:
tes vav beis
Be savviest – as in wisest
As best vive – as in best life
Best save vi – as in best save strength (vi = force in Latin)
Stave vibes – a stave is a means of support and ‘supports’ music or vibes, vibrations.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stave
BS Eve vista – the best view of Eve perhaps
Esse tb viva – ‘this one also lives’ is Google Translate’s meaning from the Portuguese in full ‘esse também vive’.
Evil
וָרָֽע– wā·rā‘ – strictly meaning ‘and evil’
N.B. ‘and evil’ anagrams for example to:
De anvil – i.e. something on which metal is beaten and on which swords can be made
na devil – the devil who makes things not applicable, i.e. cancels or negates.
Alien VD – a type of disease!
Vial den – reminding us of the vaccine vials
Idle van – self-explanatory
Lied van – self-explanatory
wā·rā‘ phonetically is ‘vara’ and vara in Spanish and Portuguese is a rod or stick, and in Latin is ‘fork’ as in ‘bent’ or ‘crooked’ .
See
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vara#Etymology
However as shown it can be ‘wara’ and this anagrams to:
a war
A raw
N.B. Raw sound like ‘roar’, the roar of a lion or tiger for example, and the sound of war, battles.
‘Wara’ also sounds somewhat like ‘worry’ as in being anxious.
As the letter of James 4 v.1 in the Bible says
“What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you?”
What is also interesting is if you take the full letters from the Hebrew which are vav, rayesh and ayin. Anagram these and we can have these phrases:
Vav rayesh ayin
Any hearsay Viv
Ha naysayer Viv
Ayahs envy Ravi
Envy ivy Sahara
Any shivery Ava
A shivery Vanya
A very shiny Ava
Aryans have ivy
Aves hairy navy
Ye sharia navvy
I won’t comment on the above except to particularly note the reference to Aryans. This was the term used by Nazi racial theorists and justified World War Two for Hitler. I hope you see the links.
Anagrams of ‘To be or not to be’.
I found these:
Better bono too
To be rotten boo
To be robe Tonto
To be bot to Nero
To Toronto Bebe
To be Eton robot
A few choices there, good and bad I think.
Hamlet
As regards the soliloquy one can see the theme of good and evil.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
i.e. be ‘good’ or just ‘be’, let yourself exist through the suffering
Or to take Arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them, to die to sleep
i.e. take up arms to fight whatever it may be and take the consequences.
Summary and final thoughts
So there you are, to be or not to be.
Good is to be, to exist.
Evil is not to be, not good, to war.
To be good or to be evil, that is the question. You choose.
P.S. On the question of being two I will as I said do another post.
As regards being forty two, here’s one I prepared earlier as Fanny Craddock would say.
42 – The Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything *
Alternatively there is this.
Hamlet – To be or not to be – Laurence Olivier