'To be or not to be?' ('Hamlet' by W. Shakespeare) - What to do if you don't know what to do?

Agnieszka Serafin - 11.10.2018 @ 17:04

That is our opinion on this topic. :)

Is there a way out at all?

by Sara Ben-Touhami and Charlotte Wittlich, HPS Buxtehude/Germany

Many people ask the question: “What to do if you don´t know what to do?”

Waking up at 6 o´clock in the morning, eating, going to school and training hobbies, this is what the everyday life of a normal student looks like. The student always knows what to do. However, there can be situations in life in which you don´t know what to do. Either you have got a big problem which is difficult to solve or you have lost sight of the meaning of life.

The sixteen-year-old Hazel Grace Lancester, the hero of John Green`s novel “the Fault in our Stars”, suffers thyroid cancer. One day she got the surprising diagnosis and her life turned upside down. She knows her death isn´t far. She worries about her future and the future of her family whose heart would broke if she dies. Hazel is questioning herself what she wants to do in her life yet. Does she want to continue her life as before or does she want to reach as much as she can? How much will she be able to handle in the future? Hazel pictures many things to herself she will miss. In addition she feels weak and hides away in the world of stories and books. She excludes herself from the reality and suffers depressions, which are in her opinion a „side effect of dying”. Her mother sent her to a self-help group, where she meets an interesting guy called Augustus. Hazel has to make a decision. Does she want to get to know him and maybe even find the love of her life? Does she want to become happy again? Or does she want to stay alone, with her family at her side, who will always support and never overexert her? Will she find the courage to try something new?

The seventeen-year-old Hannah Luther has a two-month-old relationship with her boyfriend Gideon. She is a hard-working student, who is going to study medicine after school. In contrast to Hannah, Gideon has no plans for his future. It's one of many reasons why Hannah’s parents don't approve their relationship. At the gynecologist Hannah find’s out that she is pregnant. With different feelings she asks her boyfriend for his opinion. He is not really enthusiastic about her pregnancy and gives her the choice: If she aborts the child, he will stay her boyfriend but if she keeps the baby, he will leave her alone. But she wants to keep the child. Important to add is that Hannah's parents don’t want the child either. So if she stays pregnant Gideon will break up and she has to hope for the parents’ help but if she aborts her first baby she stays with Gideon but she cannot square it with her conscience. What should she do?

Many people have to make hard decisions and often they do not know what to do. On the one hand they can search for a solution but often it's a hard search. On the other hand people can choose the easier way. It's the way, which people expected from you but it's also the way that makes you sick.

To connect this with „Hamlet“(William Shakespeare): Hamlet had to make a hard decision, too, when he found out that his brother died. Like the sick Hazel Grace and the desperate Hannah, he had to fight with his feelings.

Picture: https://pixabay.com/de/weg-richtung-entscheidung-l%C3%B6sung-1015268/

Sara Ben Touhami - 13.11.2018 @ 17:04

Hi girls! I am really amazed by your article, especially because you had to bring up a very difficult subject to talk about, namely how to overcome your problems instead of just falling apart and crying. You have mentioned 3 different characters and obstacles they had to struggle with. I have read personally ”The fault of our stars” so I perfectly know what Hazel felt and how she perceived her life after the diagnosis. In spite of countless limits, she has managed to live her life to the fullest and simply be happy, even if that was not the life that she would dream of. I can give another example of a book hero who has to face a really tough dilemma. Allison Hamilton is one of the main characters of Nicolas Sparks’s first (and probably the most famous) novel- ”The Notebook”. In 3 weeks time she is going to marry Lon- a well-respected lawyer and then they will live happily ever after. But there is something that doesn’t allow it to happen- a memory of a boy from her past, who she spent the best summer of her life with. One day Allie decides to confront the haunting past and finally visits Noah. How will their meeting affect her feelings? I highly recommend reading this unbelievably touching book to find out ;) Meanwhile, back at the ranch... What I think you should do when you don’t know what to do is just to follow your heart (Allie would definately agree with me).

Amelia Marchewczyk - 04.01.2019 @ 17:55

Hi! First of all, great article :) I really like how you used ,,the Fault in our Stars" as an example, I read this book a while ago, but I never thought about it in that way. This theme of a moral dillema, where every choice seems to be cause some kind of harm is quite frequent in literature. A good example from modern literature would be a book, The Light between Oceans" by M.L Stedman. I don’t want spoil anything, since it’s the main theme of the book, but the main characters have to face a very tragic choice about their beloved, adopted daughter named Lucy. I honestly don't know what I would do in their situation, which is why the book really touched me. I don't think there are any simple solutions to dilemmas like that - we should choose what causes the least harm to people around us and ourselves. Every situation is different and should be considered separately.

Julia Pawlak - 06.01.2019 @ 12:09