The Flaws of the Tragic Hero Hamlet in Shakespeare's Hamlet Essay

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In the play Hamlet, Hamlet is described as daring, brave, loyal, and intelligent. However, he is always consumed by his own thoughts, this being his tragic flaw. There are numerous times Hamlet does not act when he should, like his inability to act on his father's murder, his mother's marriage, and his uncle's assuming of the throne.

Hamlet's tragic flaw was that he either considered things too much, or he acted on impulse but out of passion and not reason, which leads to his downfall. Hamlet was an over thinker and a complex philosopher who wanted revenge on his father’s death. Things don’t go as planned as Hamlet’s two opposite flaws change things. One of Hamlet’s flaws, procrastination, is shown in the prayer scene when he has the opportunity to kill Claudius and get revenge on his father’s death, and he doesn’t take it. His second flaw completely opposite from the first, was acting on impulse out of passion making him kill the wrong man, Polonius. Hamlet’s acting out of passion and anger not only killed the wrong man but it was also Ophelia’s father, causing her to

Hamlet thinks he understands how action should be taken. He considers factors such as rationality, spirituality, emotion, ethics, and so on in his actions. These constant considerations of ideas just added to his problem of over thinking and questing himself. "He is particularly drawn to difficult questions or questions that cannot be answered with any certainty" (Phillips). Sometimes it seems that he doesn't believe any action can be taken in a controlled manner. If he takes a bold and decisive action, like Claudius did in killing the King and marrying Gertrude, it will yield results but he will be plagued by guilt. If he resolves himself to revenge and remains completely focused, like Laertes, he will be easily manipulated. These characters show the complexity of action Hamlet considers. When Hamlet does act it is a blind explosion of emotion and violence.

Prince Hamlet's decision to feign madness does not follow the traditional method of a tragic hero's flaw being associated with an internal weakness such as having too much pride, ambition, or passion that causes his fall from happiness into destruction.  For example, the Greek philosopher Aristotle defined the tragic hero with Oedipus as the archetype: a great man at the pinnacle of his power who, through a flaw in his own character, topples, taking everyone in his jurisdiction with him.  In contrast, Prince Hamlet pretends to feign madness because he wants to have more time to plot his plan of revenge, which includes spying on his mother and uncle.  He admits his decision as he tells Horatio, "How strange or odd some'er I bear myself- / As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on" (1.5.170-72).  Once more the

Instead, Hamlet still doubts the ghost even though he made the promise according to Hamlet’s second major soliloquy: “…The spirit that I have seen. May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps…” So the ghost acts like a catalyst that contributes to bring out hamlet’s irresolution. Hamlet begins to dig deeper and deeper for the truth.

Further evidence of Hamlet's tragic flaw can be found in act III, scene 3. At this point, Hamlet is sure of Claudius' guilt, and has even declared that "Now could I drink hot blood and do such bitter business as the day Would quake to look on." (p. 99 lines 406-408) He comes to find King Claudius alone, and recognizes it as an opportunity to act, but almost immediately talks himself out of action on the bases that the King is praying, and will therefore go to heaven. He decides yet again to delay avenging his father's murder, this time until he can kill the King while he is in a vile condition, such as "When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage; Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed." (p. 103 lines 89-90) Hamlet has failed to act for so long that the Ghost soon comes back to remind him of his duty.

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the titular character struggles to engage in his desired plan of revenge. Hamlet shows throughout the play that he is inconsistent, indecisive, and unsure of himself, as well as his actions. The play focuses on Hamlet’s revenge; however, he continuously fails to happen at opportunistic moments. Throughout the play, Hamlet insists that he intends to avenge his father’s death through the murder of Claudius, but Hamlet fails to act on occasion because of his indecisive personality.

The entire play of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, is based around the young prince Hamlet who has lost his father and is trying to avenge his death in any means possible. With this duty over his shoulders, it causes him to overthink every decision that he is trying to make and ultimately leads to his demise. Although everyone overthinks some situations, Hamlet would be known to have Generalized Anxiety Disorder in common time because whenever he starts to come up with a plan he starts to think and gets anxious. Hamlet is seen to overthink when his father’s ghosts comes back to guide him, trying to come up with a way to kill Claudius, and while he contemplates suicide. In everyone of Shakespeare 's tragedies the tragic hero always has a flaw, in this case it was Hamlet’s inability to act on his actions in a timely manner.

Hamlet faces challenges throughout the play that try his inner strengths and test his ability to handle the situation. He is torn between wanting to seek justice, and avenge his father’s death. Hamlet is also caught up in an intricate web of lies and deceit, he is considered mad by most characters when in all actuality it is just playing off of the actions of others to benefit himself. He puts on different acts trying to hide the truth, which makes him seem sincerely mad to the people around him. The truth of the matter is that Hamlet can’t decide whether or not his convictions are accurate. This dilemma ultimately leads to not only the deaths of the main characters, but the downfall of the kingdom.

Logic is man 's most valuable asset; it is what pushed humanity past other species and helped develop humankind into what it is today. Without such logic and reasoning, humanity would not have evolved into the strongest and most powerful beings alive. It is what has enabled us to dominate the world, create civilization, unlock the secrets of the universe through math and science and reveal the true nature of man through art. One of art’s most beloved benefactors, William Shakespeare, crafted his most famous character, Hamlet, to be the living embodiment of this God-given reason. However, we learn throughout Hamlet’s eponymous play the irony in the

Hamlet's fatal flaw is his inability to act. Unlike his father, Hamlet lets his intelligence rather than his heroism govern him. When he has a chance to kill Claudius, and take vengeance for his father's murder, he hesitates, reckoning that if he kills the man while he is at prayer, Claudius would have asked for pardon from the Lord and been forgiven of his sins, therefore allowing him to enter Heaven. Hamlet decides to wait for a better opening. His flaw of being hesitant in the end leads to his own death, and also the deaths of Gertrude, Ophelia, Laertes, and Claudius.

Hamlet is a tragic hero because he has tragic flaws. A tragic flaw is someone of great

What, by definition, is a tragic hero? Is this someone who saves a city in calamity? Or perhaps a character we see in hero films? A "tragic hero" is a term coined by the great philosopher, Aristotle. He describes it as a literary device used to define a character who has poor judgment and someone who has experienced personal downfalls that inevitably leads to his/her destruction. I would argue that the main character in this play (in other words, Hamlet) is an example of such a character. His thoughts and actions are controlled by those of his father's’s last words; “foul and most unnatural murder”. Hamlet's final goal was to avenge his father's death, and with that path came many incidents where his actions had greatly affected himself and others around him, for example; while Hamlet was his mother's chamber, he heard a sudden noise that makes him stab the curtain, then to reveal, Polonius was behind the curtain. After many instances, Hamlet's decisions and actions led to his tragic fatal ending.

Sometimes, while analyzing this popular play, Hamlet’s good qualities get swept under his madness. For example, his level of intelligence gets far less attention than it deserves. Aside from excelling at the University of Wittenberg, the most prevalent case of his strong intellect is when he successfully convinced everyone in the kingdom that he was crazy. By doing so, Hamlet knew that Claudius would be thrown off and not catch on to the fact that he knew of the King’s crime. Proof that this was Hamlet’s plan all along is in 1, 5, 170-182 where Hamlet says, “Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on), That you, at such times seeing me, never shall— With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake, Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, As “Well, well, we know,” or “We could an if we would,” Or “If we list to speak,” or “There be an if they might,” Or such ambiguous giving out—to note That you know aught of me. This not to do,...”. This quote also exhibits his strategic ability and the method behind his madness. Another good quality Hamlet shows is his loyalty. When asked by his deceased father to avenge his death, Hamlet, who always loved his father, immediately agreed and eventually carried out this daunting task. Most people would turn a blind eye and pretend as if the ghost was all in their head, but he was so loyal to his father that he felt it was his duty to carry through with the deed.