The Hamlet of Kenneth Branagh

 

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

 

Save me and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards!—What would your gracious figure?
...
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command?
O, say!

Not a whit. We defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man knows aught of what he leaves, what is ’t to leave betimes? Let be.

Here's a good explanation of this defining passage, from Yahoo! Answers:

Hamlet says this to dismiss Horatio's suggestion that he should reject the fencing duel against Laertes. The reason is that it is useless to defy God's will and purpose, while 'we defy augury", meaning that he doesn't believe in bad omens, because they are just spurious signs that do not truly come from God. "The fall of a sparrow" is a reference to Matthew 10:29 where Jesus assures his disciples of divine providence: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father". It is interesting to compare it with the proverb "Man proposes, God disposes", which is usually said to comfort our friends when things don't always work out as planned. Note that Hamlet here doesn't really express whether he believes things would work out in his favor or not, but simply that he should be ready and do his part, just like the "man proposes" part in the proverb, and leave the rest at God's disposal. 

"If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come" basically means that if something is or isn't supposed to happen (according to that special providence), it will or will not happen no matter whether it is a good or bad thing. Nobody except God would know when everything is supposed to happen. 

This is a defining moment for Hamlet. Now he is a man of faith and conviction, in contrast to the man he was before who was constantly in doubt.