RALPH:  Ok, this is one more famous line from this play – “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.”  Earlier, I claimed that Hamlet is here saying that our reflections on the nature of death, the kind of reflections Hamlet’s having in this soliloquy, make us cowardly, or afraid to take risky action.

SARAH:  That makes sense, Ralph.  Shakespeare may be using the word “conscience” here to mean consciousness, thinking, or intellectual reflection.  The more we think about how little we know about the afterlife, the less likely we might be to move decisively, especially if it might mean our own death.

RALPH:  But in modern English, we use it to refer to our internal sense of moral right and wrong – our moral judgment. And Shakespeare often uses it this way, too – in which case the conscience that makes us cowards, the thought that prevents us from undertaking great enterprises, is our moral judgment.

SARAH:  But remember how the soliloquy begins – “whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer…” Hamlet is not asking whether or not it’s reasonable to keep living, or face death – he’s asking what’s nobler, or more virtuous, to do – in other words, what is the right thing to do?  After all, doing right and wrong may have a serious impact on what kind of afterlife we may have after death!

RALPH:  This has led some to suspect that it’s precisely the fear of going to Hell that Hamlet is making reference to here – after all, if it turns out that killing Claudius is a mortal sin, Hamlet may be damning himself by taking revenge.

SARAH:  But on the other hand, being cowardly can’t be the right way to act – that can’t be noble.  So how does our moral judgment end up making us cowardly, which seems like a lack of virtue?

RALPH:  Hmm, that’s not easy to figure out.  Here’s one possibility:  if we decide that it is nobler to put up with life’s suffering, to patiently bear our hardships, then that would keep us from taking risky actions – and in a way, this might seem cowardly – and yet it would still be the right thing to do.