Spring Final Exam #3 In Hamlet by William Shakespeare is the play that most people think about when taking about tragedies. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, kills Hamlet’s father King Hamlet, and marries Hamlet’s mother, Queen Getrude. Hamlet the wants revenge on now Kind Claudius for murdering his father by poison. This leads to Claudius poisoning his wife on accident, when trying to poison Hamlet. Polonius wants to poison Hamlet by slashing him with his poisoned covered sword. He does this, and the Hamlet kills Polonius. Hamlet now dying from the poisonous sword he got cut with, switches his focus on killing the King. He does this by forcing him to drink the wine that he initially poisoned to kill Hamlet but instead ended up killing him …show more content…
A tragedy in a play is created by a series of misfortunes, and unfortunate events, such as a death. The point of a tragedy in a play, novel, book, movie, or any form of literature is to bring out certain aspects, traits, flaws, or characteristics of the character most affected by the tragedy. These types of stories or plays attract the reader’s attention because they keep the readers interest in the ever changing characteristics of the characters, the possibility for revenge, or interest in seeing how it turns into a tragedy. A tragedy in a play usually leads to one death, usually more. It sometimes begins with a character wanting revenge, or just because they are greedy. The tragedy occurs with a downfall of a character. Without the main characters downfall, there would be no reason for there to be any sympathy towards them. In Shakespearean tragedies, the protagonist is the main character who has a downfall, and a flaw that ultimately lead to their demise. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good …show more content…
The real question is why is Hamlet considered one of the best, if not the best tragic story of all time? There are a few reasons why this is such a great tragic story. First we need to know what a tragedy is and why is there one in this story. A character, in this case Hamlet, needs to have a tragic flaw, many characters point out Hamlet’s flaw. Second he needs a reason for his flaw to show. In Hamlet’s case, it was the death of his father, and his mother remarrying, his uncle Claudius. The reason for his flaw to show is because he wants revenge on Claudius for murdering his father with poison. Aristotle’s definition of a tragedy is “a tragedy is defined as an imitation of an event that is serious, complete, and possesses magnitude.” Hamlet has an undeniable series of serious and unfortunate events which leads him to possess a great anger, thirst and hunger to get revenge for his father by killing his uncle. Hamlet’s father’s ghost appears to Hamlet and tells Hamlet to avenge him by killing the man that killed him, King
The Tragedy of Hamlet is a play written by William Shakespeare about a young prince trying to avenge his father’s death. In the beginning of the play, young Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his father, who tells Hamlet that his uncle, Claudius, killed him. Meanwhile Hamlets mother, Gertrude, has gotten married to said uncle. Now it is Hamlet’s job to kill his Uncle-father to avenge his dead father, a task that may prove to daunting for Hamlet. In Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Hamlet, the author uses diction and syntax to make Hamlet portray himself as mentally insane when in reality, he is sane thorough the duration of the play, tricking the other characters into giving up their darkest secrets.
Aristotle states that "For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality. Now character determines men's qualities, but it is by their actions that they are happy or the reverse. Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions. Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all.
Vowing revenge upon his Uncle/Dad, Hamlet begins to mentally falter and eventually, is in. such a wild rage that he accidentally kills Polonious believing him to be his father. Hilarity ensues. & nbsp; Ophelia, Hamlet's love interest, commits suicide/dies (that's up). for debate elsewhere) after going slightly mad at the impact of her.
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 commit suicide. Hamlet was a hero trying to do the right thing, but his tragic flaws turn everything around when everyone including himself dies .
Most readers are aware of the many famous deaths or acts of death within the Shakespearean plays. And when the main characters die in Shakespeare’s plays, indeed, the readers would categorize the play as a tragedy. The problem with any tragedy definition is that most tragic plays do not define the tragedy conditions explained or outlined by Aristotle. According to Telford (1961), a tragedy is a literary work that describes the downfall of an honorable, main character who is involved on historically or socially significant events. The main character, or tragic hero, has a tragic fault, the quality that leads to his or her own destruction. In reading Aristotle’s point of view, a tragedy play is when the main character(s) are under enormous pressure and are incapable to see the dignities in human life, which Aristotle’s ideas of tragedy is based on Oedipus the King. Shakespeare had a different view of tragedy. In fact, Shakespeare believed tragedy is when the hero is simply and solely destroyed. Golden (1984) argued the structure of Shakespearean tragedy would be that individual characters revolved around some pain and misery.
Hamlet is a bitter tragedy of revenge and deceit. Unbeknownst to Hamlet, his father, the king of Denmark, is murdered by his own brother, Claudius — who then marries the queen and assumes the throne. Hamlet is visited by his father’s ghost, who compels him to enact revenge upon his uncle — but spare his mother. Hamlet finally decides to stage a play in which there is a poisoning scene, meant to stir his uncle into panic. Hamlet’s plan is successful, but he, in a fit of rage, accidentally...
Beginning with the Greeks, tragedy has been an essential form of entertainment. Although it has changed slightly over time due to different religious and social values, it is still written and performed to this day. Perhaps the most well known tragedy of all time is Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hamlet is perhaps the epitome of all tragedy. Not only does the tragic hero Hamlet meet his demise, but all the main characters in the play at some point due to some flaw in their character, or some fatal decision, also meet the same fate. It is because of their character flaw and/or their fatal decision at some time during the play that their death can be justified.
It can be argued upon in the case of Hamlet because not just one large flaw lead to his downfall, and what one feels is his true flaw can vary by opinion and interpretation. While there are the popular opinions of his tragic flaw being that he is indecisive regarding taking action against Claudius or too driven toward his ambitions (such as for the throne), Hamlet’s true fatal flaw is his understanding and use of the power of language and words. It is identification with and immense knowledge of language that bring his own tragic ending and the tragic ending of those around him. The idea of Hamlet’s connections to words is a main theme in the play, and throughout the novel the importance of language to Hamlet is emphasized in different ways (example of him reciting and writing play, word words excerpt, etc.). It is this connection he has that leads to his all-too-literary analysis of
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
William Shakespeare's “Hamlet” is one of the most tragic plays ever written. It is about a young prince trying to keep his word to his dead father by avenging his death. Hamlet procrastinates when avenging his father’s death, which is his tragic flaw. Hamlet appears to be a coward as well as depressed. He finds himself questioning his own ambitious motives, such as revenge and hatred toward his murderous uncle.
Hamlet has an enormous amount of stress placed on him by the events of his father’s death and his mother’s hasty marriage. Hamlet’s mentality is further stressed by his father’s appearance in the form of a ghost telling Hamlet the true cause of his death, “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown” (Shakespeare 1.5.38-39), and more importantly telling Hamlet to avenge his death and to never forget him (1.5). This must weigh heavily on Hamlet’s mind as he tries to bring himself to carry out such a corrupt act. As Javed describes Hamlet’s ordeal as, “having taken on unwillingly the task of the revenge whose narrower function may have been to avenge a wronged kinsman, but whose wider one was to purge from society the evil which it could not otherwise escape” (332.) The corruption of Hamlet’s character is tragic because as Polonius says: “the safety and health of [the] whole state” depends on him (Shakespeare 1.3.20). The first drastic demonstration of Hamlet’s corruption is shown when he finds Polonius hiding behind a curtain . Hamlet, who believes his uncle Claudius is spying on him, stabs at the curtain, inadvertently killing Polonius. As Dr. Topchyan describes this act, Hamlet does it in “unrestrained passion,” unexpectedly even for himself. His deed, dictated by the situation, is impulsive, not deliberate – an instinctive action, a desperate
Well Kylie, a tragedy is usually a story of one person, with both the hero victims in the play usually of a high standing of society. This is especially the case in “Hamlet”, with his victims being King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Polonious, Laertes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, all being linked to the Royal Family of Denmark. A personality fault (the tragic flaw) causes the hero to act in a manner which brings about his own misfortune and eventually death, during which he lets the audience know he is dying by delivering a final speech. In “Hamlet”, it is his tragic flaw of his indecisiveness and inability to act, which brings his own suffering and misfortune. Had he been able to kill King Claudius in the beginning none of the suffering would have occurred. He also delivers his final speech telling the audience of his death, “I am dead Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!” he exclaims after being poisoned by Laertes envenomed rapier.
The second most important part of a tragedy is Character. Characters actually play a secondary role to the plot in the “perfect” tragedy. The actions of the characters make them responsible for their fate, not a higher power. There should be a protagonist and a tragic hero. Tragic heroes are also exceptional beings; Hamlet was very intellectual, giving him a brilliant mind and a quick wit. The tragic hero is the ma...
Hamlet’s tragic flaw was shown to him in a dream by the ghost of his father. His father tells him that he was murdered by his uncle, Claudius. In this scene, the tragic flaw was transferred and manifested itself in Hamlet’s actions. His obsession with revenge and death is all he can think about. He needs to act quickly and decisively but finds himself procrastinating about what to do. In Act III, Hamlet holds the knife over the head of his uncle, Claudius, but cannot strike the fatal blow. Instead, he writes a play about the same scenario to study the reaction of Claudius as to a clue of his guilt. After he decides Claudius is guilty of murdering his father, he still relents from taking his revenge. He says, “Haste me to know ‘t, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thought of love May sweep to my revenge.
William Shakespeare is known for his dark, romantic theatrical productions, and an example of Shakespeare’s world renowned work is the play Hamlet. In this play there are a variety of characters that contribute to the play’s plot and tones. For example, Polonius, Osric, and the Gravedigger include comedic relief to certain tones in the plot whereas Claudius, Laertes, and Fortinbras provide a sense of dark, sinister deceit within the plot. The main character, Hamlet, contributes to the play in a distinct way because he is portrayed in two different ways. The first way he is portrayed he is seen as the heir to the throne who is full of sorrow for his father’s death and distaste for his mother’s quick remarriage. Yet, Hamlet takes it upon himself