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  Well of course the whole point is   
 supposed to be that it increases
  the enjoyment.

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  But a whole number of students   
 have asked me – at Summer Schools and
  study centres –

3
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  exactly what we mean, in the   
 literature parts of the course,

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  when we ask students to pay   
 special attention to the way a particular writer
  uses language.

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  Well, here's a pretty well-known   
 bit of language:

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  Hamlet: To be, or not to be...   
 that is the question.

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  Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to  
  suffer the slings and arrows of
  outrageous fortune,

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  or to take arms against a sea of   
 troubles, and by opposing end them? To
  die: to sleep…

9
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  ..no more; and by a sleep to say   
 we end the heart-ache and the thousand
  natural shocks...

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  ..that flesh is heir to, 'tis a   
 consummation devoutly to be wish'd. To
  die, to sleep;

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  to sleep, perchance to dream: ay,   
 there's the rub;

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  for in that sleep of death what   
 dreams may come...

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  ..when we have shuffled off this   
 mortal coil, must give us pause: there's
  the respect...

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  ..that makes calamity of so long   
 life; for who would bear the whips and
  scorns of time,

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  the oppressor's wrong, the proud   
 man's contumely, the pangs of
  despised love,

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  the law's delay, the insolence of   
 office and the spurns…

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  ..that patient merit of the   
 unworthy takes, when he himself might…

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  Hamlet: ..his quietus make with a   
 bare bodkin?

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  Arnold Kettle: Is this question of  
  attention to language a formal thing?

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  Do we want people to say to   
 themselves…

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  .."Oh, what a splendid example of   
 a metaphysical conceit!" or...

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  .."Just listen to that subtle   
 dissonance!" Well, I don't think that is
  the main point,

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  though of course it is good to   
 recognise a conceit when you see one…

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  ..and to be aware of terms like   
 internal rhyme. Being aware of these
  terms helps you…

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  ..to recognise the things and so   
 formulate your more instinctive reactions.

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  But the main point is to be aware   
 that words aren't to be taken
  for granted,

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  that good writers use words in   
 ways that help you to be aware…

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  ..of the full force (and often   
 complexity) of their meaning.

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  When – in the "To be or not to be  
 " speech – Hamlet asks…

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  .."Whether 'tis nobler in the mind  
  to suffer the slings and arrows of
  outrageous fortune",

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  he isn't just asking himself   
 whether it's better to put up with…

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  ..pieces of exceptionally bad luck  
 , even though…

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  ..that's a fair enough paraphrase   
 of his meaning.

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  But Shakespeare wrote 'nobler' not  
  'better'.

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  If he'd meant 'better' he could   
 have written it.

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  'Nobler' brings in all sorts of   
 associations 'better' wouldn't.

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  It makes us realise that because   
 Hamlet is 'noble', he has special problems
  of how to act.

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  It makes us realise even that   
 there's a difference between the social
  sense of 'noble'…

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  ..(someone who belongs to the   
 nobility that's to say) and…

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  ..the more abstract sense of the   
 word to convey a high-minded,

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  morally exalted sort of feeling. (  
 Are nobles always noble?)

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  What I'm getting at is that to   
 read the sentence – "Whether 
  tis nobler" –

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  for all it's worth means to get   
 the full force of the actual words…

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  ..(those words and no others) that  
  Shakespeare's using:

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  and to ask you to pay that sort of  
  attention to language is one of the
  chief things…

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  ..we've been trying to do in the   
 literature aspect of the course.