SARAH: In this opening line Hamlet directly states the decision he faces: "To be or not to be" — to live or die, to exist or to stop existing.

RALPH: We can imagine that Hamlet is returning to the theme of his first soliloquy — a suicide wish. After all, he's asking whether or not it's better, or nobler, to put up with the troubles that life has thrown his way, or simply end them by dying.

SARAH: Well let's not be too hasty here, Ralph. His exact words are, "by opposing end them" — so the alternative to putting up with all his troubles is to oppose them, or fight them. And fighting them will put an end to those troubles, as well as, potentially, an end to Hamlet himself, if the fighting proves dangerous. This doesn't sound exactly like suicide.

RALPH: That's a good point, Sarah. But it's not entirely clear why fighting against these hardships might kill Hamlet. Perhaps because he has to risk his life to kill Claudius, and he might die trying?

SARAH: Yes, perhaps. It's also important to note that when he says "'tis nobler in the mind to suffer," he's probably not saying that it's more noble in his mind, his opinion, — he's saying that it's noble to suffer these hardships in his mind, that is, to accept and endure them psychologically, not just physically. The phrase "in his mind" probably refers to the verb "to suffer," and not to the idea of "nobler."