What act does Hamlet say to be or not to be
'to be or not to be.'.This soliloquy illustrates hamlet's continued inability to do anything of consequence.Claudius and gertrude discuss hamlet's behavior with rosencrantz and guildenstern, who say they have been unable to learn the cause of his melancholy.He is questioning the hasty remarriage of his mother;Hamlet is appalled at the revelation that his father has been murdered, and the ghost tells him that as he slept in his garden, a villain poured.'to be or not to be.'.
In the scuffle that follows, hamlet forces an exchange of rapiers, and hamlet wounds laertes.Laertes then wounds hamlet with the poisoned rapier.The 'to be or not to be' speech is but one big excursion, detour and delay into the astral way of 'thinking' and 'thinking we think'.Hamlet is in a state of shock and grief as he has discovered that his father has been murdered by his uncle.Hamlet is winning the match when gertrude drinks from the poisoned cup that claudius has prepared for hamlet.