Hamlet grapples with his own task in its immediate context. Yet that effort entrains wider frames of reference whose signification critics have striven to clarify. In one such frame, Hamlet's agon reformulates the question, "What is a man?" (4.4.33) which he himself raises.1 As a rational animal, a man is one who thinks. But the play problematizes the proper exercise of thought by which man sustains this identity. The role of reason in Hamlet has attracted …showed first 75 words of 1340 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1340 total…clarify this point. According to the risk-reward analysis unfolded in the soliloquy, thought literally makes life worth living - not intrinsically, but only because the risk posed by posthumous thought outweighs the reward of release from life. The implicit "upshot" (5.2.389) of this reasoning is that Hamlet recognizes the need to retain control over the movement of thought. The corollary of this insight is that the value of life depends on the mentality adopted during it.