All the "to be or not to be" scenes of Hamlet we saw yesterday were all different in their ways of portraying the meaning of this famous speech. For instance the setting's of these scenes helped bring out the true meaning of this speech made by Hamlet. Most people never really understand what Hamlet is trying to speak out about because of the way the language is. This is why the settings help viewers understand the "to be or not to be" speech.

The settings we encountered the other day were on the edge of a cliff, in basement/tomb, in a court hall, and a public blockbuster. These might sounds like unusual places for this speech to take place but they really bring out what Hamlet means.
Laurence Olivier's Hamlet speech took place on the edge of the cliff. Not only was it on the cliff but it was overlooking a rough ocean with jagged rocks sticking up from underneath. This setting showed great suspense throughout his speech. The ocean and rocks symbolized death and the unknown world. Standing on the cliff was meant to show that he was in a debate between himself in whether or not he want to live or to die. But when he stepped back and dropped the knife realizing he was one of the people he was talking about when he talked about them not taking action in life. He had the knife ready to show he would kill himself but he never took action.
Franco Zefferelli's interpretation of Hamlet and his "to be or not to be" speech was the one that took place in the basement/tomb. This setting showed both death and life. The basement was dark and consisted of coffins which showed the death part of this speech but there also was beams of light coming through openings which symbolized life. There were times when he was standing over the coffins speaking but then would step back into a beam of light. This was a result again to his failure to take action. The stairs also had tones of light shining on them which to mean showed the easy way out since it was lite and showed life. During this whole speech Hamlet was all alone and there was no music giving it a lonely mood.
Kenneth Branagh's version of his Hamlet speech was inside of a court hall where he lives his everyday life. Except during the whole speech he was in front of a mirror showing that he is battling between his conscious and himself on the question of life or death. The mirrors show the emptiness of the gigantic room he was in and that he was all alone just like in every other version of this scene. During the scene Hamlet pulls our a knife from his pocket which shows he has been thinking about death before this speech. When he pulls out the knife he sees a glimpse of Claudius with the knife near his neck. He has a calm whisper through this speech showing the intensity and importance of this speech.