To be or not to be?

"To be or not to be- That is the question"

That was the first piece of writing that I had ever heard from Shakespeare. By now everyone should know that Shakespeare is a genius, whether you think that is your own personal opinion. Literature teachers around the world use him as a an example and all talk about how awesome Shakespeare is/was/and shall forever be. What I really want to know is what the hell Shakespeare meant by "to be or not to be". This small phrase alone seems to be the most quoted and frankly I have no idea what the true meaning is. Ever since I was young I have been hearing people quote this phrase and I am pretty convinced that they have no idea what this means either.

Out of the possibilities that exist, the literal meaning of this famous soliloquy from Hamlet seems to deal with the idea of suicide. Hamlet seems to be debating whether it is better for him to live or die. This could be the meaning, but I think it probably deals more with the very existence of man. Hamlet himself questions this as he mopes away after his father's death and his mother's marriage to his uncle. He comes upon this morbid thought because he realizes that no one really cared that his father died. They cared in the sense that they felt remorse because he was their king, but after all was done and through they just went to their everyday lives. His death had no true impact on how they lived and they seemed to forget about his death, instead focusing on the new king and his marriage.

If this idea was what the most famous of the famous Shakespeare writings was attempting to bring across, what is Shakespeare really forcing the reader/audience to think about? It seems to me like he was questioning the existence of man and man's very mortality. Though man can shape the world around him to an extent, after he leaves this earthly realm what will be left? What is left behind by man as he died off? Will our species eventually die out and be found by an evolution of our current form or by aliens, much like the fossils we examine? It seems like Shakespeare examines the idea of legacy.

Legacy seems to be growing increasingly important in a time of super celebrities and politicians. Every body seems to be trying to leave a mark on society, but why exactly do they have motive. Is it some sort of human social relic that forces us to want to pass our experiences and story down the generations through lore and legend? Perhaps it is to make one feel that they have contributed they have changed society in a positive, or negative, way.

Shakespeare has created a good little riddle with this one. Maybe he meant for it to be taken literally, maybe not. It doesn't change the fact that its some deep stuff and I still have no idea what it's saying.