RALPH: Hamlet is equating dying here with sleeping — dying is nothing more than a sleep that lasts forever. Just as when we sleep, we no longer consciously feel pain, so dying would end our sufferings.

SARAH: When Hamlet says "the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to", he's now speaking of the human condition generally — all human flesh suffers pain from ordinary experience, life is not easy for anyone. This is important because Hamlet is here no longer speaking of his specific, and extreme, difficulties, of losing his father and needing to seek revenge against a murderer.

RALPH: True enough, Sarah. And therefore we might read his initial question, "to be or not to be," as a question facing everyone, and not simply this particular person in these specific circumstances.