Birringer, Johannes. “Rhapsodies of Words: ‘Trapicality’ in Shakespeare’s Theater”. New Literary History. 17.3, Interpretations (1986): 493-510.

Hamlet’s famous soliloquy in the first scene of the third act (“To be, or not to be, that is the question”) is justly famous, since it has managed to puzzle almost everybody, including Shakespeare’s shrewdest critics, with its seeming profundity. But we cannot listen to the nightmarish imagery of his speech without being aware that he must be putting on a show of passion, since we are observing him being observed by the King and Polonius, who wish to observe Ophelia observe Hamlet. 498