Discuss the puzzle of life and death as presented in Hamlet and in regards to the famous soliloquy, "To be or not to be,that is the question."

Hamlet's life is in a really bad place. His father has
been murdered and his mother quickly re-married the murderer, His girlfriend has dumped
him. His friends have proved disloyal. He should be king but his Dad's killer is king
instead. And all the ideaologaical values of beauty, justice and truth that he cherished
in his youth are now empty and meaningless. 

Life has given
Hamlet a massive wake-up slap from his pampered and privileged childhood. And he is
saying to himself, "I hate this, why don't I simply end it?" Why should I live a grey
and unhappy life full of troubles and pain? Why don't I just kill
myself.

Hamlet's reason are not complicated or particularly
deep. But they are beautifully expressed. He lists all the bad things life has and all
the reasons death would be pleasant. In the end he concludes that the only reason he
won't kill himself is becuase God says it is forbidden and life after death
might be even worse than life. To leave this world is only a good
idea if the next is better or nothing at all. But it might be
worse.

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 pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn
awry,
And lose the name of
action.

The only reason he
doesn't kill himself is too much thinking. If he were brave and purposeful, he would do
it.

(but, of course, he is wrong; a bad life is better
than death because a bad life can get better. Whereas death is
unchanging.)