Discuss "To be or not to be" in Hamlet's soliloquy.

Part of
what makes 'sso powerful is that it cannot offer a definitive answer to consciousness and being
in the world.  's nature of doubting, questioning, acting so that his "function is
smothered by surmise," had already been evident throughout the play, but this particular
moment highlights it to a very strong degree.  The notion of wondering how to exist without
pain, or to prefer a state of "non- existence" in comparison to the one offered are
both powerful elements in Hamlet's speech.  Through Hamlet, Shakespeare reveals quite a
modernist element to consciousness.  Individual consciousness is steeped in pain and confusion,
and the alternative might be preferred, only to understand that this is illusory, for there is
no real escape to pain in consciousness and in the modern setting.  In the final analysis, the
power of questioning "to be or not to be" is so vivid because it strikes at the pain
which exists at the heart of being in the world.