What Makes Laertes A Tragic Hero?

On the other hand, Laertes wants to revenge his father’s death. Therefore this mistake murder leads Hamlet to his downfall as Claudius and Laertes want to kill him.

In order to gain a proper perspective on the concept of what a tragic hero is, we must synthesize information from the following play’s, “The Death Of A Salesman”, and “Oedipus The King”. Both plays takes the stance on the idea that validates the ultimate notion,  “tragic hero. From Willy’s hubris personality to his questionable and mysterious death, to Oedipus dynamic and complex choices and kingly personality that determines his fate. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement that leads to his/her downfall. In other words, even though both characters made incredible contributions and left a very noble legacy, their choices and decisions determined their ultimate fate. In today’s world tragic heroes are commonly present,

Laertes acts the most irrationally and rapidly. When Laertes discovers that his father was murdered, he becomes outraged and demonstrates his uncontrolled character as he storms into the castle of Denmark overthrowing the guards and demanding answers about his father's death and questionable funeral. "O thou vile king, give me my father!" (Act 4 Sc.5, 119-120). He is enraged that his father was not buried with his sword and that there was no memorial. When Laertes learns that Hamlet killed his father, he gives no thought to the damnation of his soul as he immediately makes a plan with Claudius to poison and kill Hamlet. Laertes' hatred

A tragic hero is a person who has qualities of a hero such as intelligence and strength but makes choices that lead to their self-destruction. The tragic hero is usually from a noble family or high position. Oedipus from The Sophocles is a tragic hero because he possesses tragic flaws such as hubris, hamartia, and too much curiosity. Marcus Brutus, a Roman politician, also serves to be a tragic hero since he is too naive, honest, and sometimes impulsive. Both Oedipus and Brutus have certain characteristics that determine them to be a tragic hero.

Laertes loses his family because of Hamlet’s actions. His father is killed by him and his sister kills herself because of her grief. Laertes and King Claudius begin to plot Hamlet’s murder, planning to poison him, by drink or wound, whichever comes first. However, the plan backfires on the both of them and Laertes dies from his own blade, but not before saying “The King, the King’s to blame.”

     A Shakespearean tragic hero starts out as a noble person; a great exceptional being who stands out. A tragic hero has a tragic flaw of an exaggerated trait that leads to their downfall and eventually to death. William Shakespeare often made his main characters tragic heroes in his plays. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the role of the tragic hero is given to the main character: Macbeth. This is because he starts off as a loyal and well liked man in the beginning, but has a tragic flaw of ambition which ultimately leads to his downfall.

36-38). King Claudius appears to be an honest, noble king, but in reality he is King Hamlet's murderer and a manipulative ruler. Near the end of the play, Claudius manipulates Laertes into a duel with Hamlet, so that he can murder Hamlet without suspicion when he says, "But you content to lend your patience to us,/And we shall jointly labor with your soul/To give it due content.". (4.7. ) This shows that Claudius is openly offering a chance for Laertes to seek revenge upon Hamlet for killing Polonius. Later on, Claudius also lays out the plan to murder Hamlet, when he says

What is important to know is that Hamlet and Laertes, throughout the text do not have a friendly relationship and the admiration for Laertes by Hamlet is nothing but an irony and sarcasm. As an audience to the play, one know that Laertes has been brainwashed into believing that Hamlet is his enemy, even when that is not the case at all; the enemy of the Danes throughout the text is the King, Claudius. He is responsible for numerous deaths and agony in the country because he is responsible for killing fathers to Laertes and Hamlet. Despite this, Claudius still manages to create a wall between Hamlet and Laertes, even though the audience expects them to

He is a hero who makes sure his story would be known that he has conquered the ambitious Claudius. However, in the process, he lost everyone he loves including his own life. Hamlet is in fact a tragic hero. According to Aristotle’s definition of tragedy, a tragic hero is a great person who has the potential for greatness but is defeated. This protagonist must come into conflict with a force who or which directly opposes to what he should want. He must also suffer from a tragic flaw, which inevitably brings about his own downfall. In Hamlet, Hamlet is the protagonist who suffers from the flaw of inaction while he is faced against Claudius. To conclude, because of Hamlet’s great inability to act earlier, his lies and deceptive acts have all prolonged his primary goal which has resulted in his tragic death.

The tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s most popular and greatest tragedy, presents his genius as a playwright and includes many numbers of themes and literary techniques. In all tragedies, the main character, called a tragic hero, suffers and usually dies at the end. Prince Hamlet is a model example of a Shakespearean tragic hero. Every tragedy must have a tragic hero. A tragic hero must own many good traits, but has a flaw that ultimately leads to his downfall. If not for this tragic flaw, the hero would be able to survive at the end of the play. A tragic hero must have free will and also have the characteristics of being brave and noble. In addition, the audience must feel some sympathy for the tragic hero.

Laertes does not think about his actions or reason through them as Hamlet does, but reacts indecisively and quickly to his father’s death with no concern for the results. For instance, when Laertes finds out about his father’s death, when he barges into the castle Elsinore, and demands to see the king, when Claudius convinces Laertes that he did not kill Polonius, answering Claudius’ question whether Laertes would kill even a friend to avenge his father, Laertes answers, “None but his enemies.” (IV, v, 165) The fact that Laertes would kill his own friend to avenge his father shows that he does not care for the consequences that would follow murdering your friend. He is hot headed and does not stop to think, so he does not realize he is being manipulated. Another instance, following the discussion between Claudius and Laertes aforementioned, Claudius starts to flatter Laertes into killing Hamlet for him, as Claudius questions Laertes commitment to avenging his father, Laertes declares, “ To cut his throat i’ th’ church.” (IV, vii, 144) Laertes confesses with this line that he does not believe in the consequences of the after life. He has no regards for the eternal condemnation that taking a life results in.

A tragic hero is defined as a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for downfall, suffering, or defeat. The hero in these tragedies is often presented as a noble however, flawed character whose demise is often impart to their own decisions, often due to their previously mentioned flaws, error in judgment and imprudent actions. Written in the early 1600’s Shakespeare wrote one arguably one of his greatest and highly controversial plays, the tragedy known as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Shakespeare in his play introduces us the pays one of his most popular, enigmatic, and dynamic characters the tragic hero Prince Hamlet. Hamlet is presented to us a sensitive, religious, loyal, moral, intellectual, and young

asks Reynaldo to defame his son. He is more obsessed with his image and fame than his son’s. Once Polonius was murdered, Laertes still wanted to avenge his fathers death, which shows this relationship was only one-sided.

Popular descriptions of Alexei Karenin label him as a cold and passionless government official who doesn’t care about his wife or family. Indeed, he is viewed as the awful husband who is holding Anna hostage in a loveless marriage. However, this is a highly exaggerated description, if not completely false, analysis of Karenin. Upon careful analysis of Karenin’s character and his actions, it is clear that he is not the person Anna makes him out to be. In fact, with thorough examination of the passage on pages 384 and 385 of Anna Karenina, it is clear that Alexei Karenin can be considered the hidden tragic hero of the novel.

In the play Oedipus the King, Oedipus struggles to accept the truth and lets his temper over power him. He can be displayed as a tragic hero. His refusal to accept the truth led to Oedipus’ down fall. A tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle, “is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction.” Sophocles’ Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.