The prince of Denmark is commanded by his father's ghost to avenge his murder, and the delay that follows has generated more interpretation than any other literary work. What is Hamlet waiting for? Why does he not act? Shakespeare seems to have written something that exceeds all explanation. The soliloquies have become the interior monologue of Western consciousness; the play within the play is the model for all metafiction. To be or not to be: the question is still being asked.