Which play includes the line 'To be, or not to be'?

The play that includes the line “To be, or not to be” is Hamlet. Prince Hamlet speaks the famous meditation in Act 3, Scene 1, as he considers whether it is nobler to endure life’s suffering or resist it through death.

The passage is often called a soliloquy, although Ophelia is onstage and Claudius and Polonius are secretly observing nearby. Hamlet’s language moves from abstract philosophical questions to vivid images such as “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and “the undiscovered country” of death.

Hamlet exists in several early versions. The First Quarto appeared in 1603, the Second Quarto in 1604, and the play was included in the First Folio of 1623. These texts differ in wording and arrangement, so the speech is not identical in every edition.

A common mix-up connects the speech with Hamlet’s later graveyard scene, where he holds Yorick’s skull. Both are iconic moments, but the “To be, or not to be” speech occurs in Act 3, while the graveyard scene occurs in Act 5. Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth do not contain this famous line.