To be, or not to be...

Okay, generally speaking, this speech is more important than the other one, simply because of its depth. This speech can be looked at one of two ways. The more common one is that Hamlet is contemplating suicide (or not). The second is that Hamlet is debating whether he should attack Claudius outright and risk [almost] certain death, or if he should wait for a good chance to avenge his father. Now, I'm not saying one theory is wrong and the other right; they are both valid. Neither is right and neither is wrong. It's just personal preference.

The other thing worthy of note is that Hamlet contemplates what it is like to be dead. I believe the "to sleep, perchance to dream" line is one example. "Sleep" represents death, and "to dream" would be a vague reference to an afterlife of some type. It is almost safe to assume that Hamlet believes in life after death, mostly because he talked to his father's ghost. Can't do that without an afterlife.

Alas poor Yorick...

Not much to this speech, other than people tend to remember the first couple of lines. Basically, while Hamlet and Horatio are walking through the graveyard, the "clowns" (gravediggers), are digging a grave for Ophelia. The way people were buried back then, they were all kind of buried together; I guess that saved space. Anyway, so while these two guys are digging, their flinging bones all over the place and out pops a skull, which Hamlet picks up. Somehow, he recognizes it as Yorick's and then goes into his speech. The speech is all about when Yorick was alive and Hamlet was a kid, and they were great friends and had lots of fun together.