Shakespeare uses a soliloquy to highlight the internal conflict that faced Hamlet in act III. The speech brought to the fore Hamlet's hesitation in deciding whether to end his life in the hope of attaining eternal rest. The line “No more; and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks” shows that he considers death a possible way out of all his worries.
The soliloquy appears in Act III, scene i. It has historically been regarded as the most famous of all quotes in Shakespearean literature, perhaps in all literature.
That being said, much of the soliloquy represents paradox. Hamlet is questioning life and death, being and not being. For Hamlet, it seems that each exists upon its own premise and crosses over at the same time. When living, one is moving closer to death.
